


CONTROL

by arcanalalune



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Angst, Bonding Through Trauma, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Mental Instability, Minor Character Death, Mishima Yuuki Has A Palace, Persona User Mishima Yuuki, Phantom Thief Mishima Yuuki, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, learning to cope, mishima and shiho actually getting the love and healing that they both deserve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 55,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24777655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanalalune/pseuds/arcanalalune
Summary: AU where Mishima has an awakening in the metaverse and becomes a persona user. His own awakening and newfound rebellious spirit lead him down a path much different from Phansite Admin.
Relationships: Mishima Yuuki/Suzui Shiho
Comments: 43
Kudos: 83





	1. Colors

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe that I'm finally posting this fic again!
> 
> There was an earlier version of this fic that I posted a few chapters of. I was updating it as I wrote each new chapter, but I decided to just finish the whole story so I could post a completed and polished fic. I've been working on this for about a year now and It's finally ready to share with all of you! I could not be more proud or excited so I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also, it is not necessary to read the older version in order to understand this version of the fic. This is a standalone piece that can be read on its own!
> 
> Updates W/F!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"You're drippin' like a saturated sunrise_
> 
> _You're spilling like an overflowin' sink_
> 
> _You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece_
> 
> _And now you're tearin' through the pages and the ink”_  
> 

Mr. Inui stepped up to the chalkboard and wrote the name _Bathala_. Chalk in hand, he scraped a bold underline beneath the word as he turned on his heel and faced the class of 2-D. 

“Amamiya-kun!” Ren Amamiya, the new transfer student — the one rumored to have a criminal record — lifted his head up to pay attention to the teacher. “Bathala is the supreme god of which brand of mythology?”

“Phillipine.” Amamiya responded effortlessly.

“Correct!” Mr. Inui clapped his hands together and resumed his lecture. “Phillipine mythology, or more specifically, Tagalog mythology is centered around the god Bathala. He is an all-mighty deity who created the universe. He had three offspring with a mortal woman; Hanan, deity of the morning, Tala, deity of the stars, and Mayari, deity of the moon. Now…”

As his lecture resumed, the students paid different degrees of attention. Soon enough, lunchtime rolled around and Mishima pulled a bento box out of his bag and decided to eat at his desk. He glanced down at the bandages and wrappings around his arms and hands, then shut his eyes tight. After a deep breath in and then out, he opened his eyes and tried to enjoy his meal. 

Ryuji Sakamoto walked through the doorway into the classroom and breezed right past Mishima, heading towards his friend on the other side of the room. Ren smiled at Ryuji and started laughing over some dumb joke Ryuji probably made. 

Mishima tilted his head a bit to listen in on them, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying exactly. All he heard was laughter and general pleasantness among them. He glared down at his lunch and, no longer having an appetite, put the top back on the box and slid it into his bag.

Ren’s gaze shifted a bit towards Mishima and his smile subsided. “Hey Ryuji, I’ve been wondering. Is he one of them?”

Ryuji turned. “Who? Mishima?” He looked over at him and was reminded of the severity of the wounds and bruises. He frowned a bit and quickly looked away again. “Yeah. He’s on the boys’ volleyball team.”

“So Kamoshida ‘coaches’ him, too?”

"Yeah.” Ryuji nodded. “That guy always has bruises on him. He says that they’re from practice, but we know that’s bullshit now.”

“I didn’t see him in the palace...” Ren said under his breath.

Ryuji shrugged. “Me neither. He doesn’t play in a lot of the games, either. He’s usually on the bench, but he still has to be at all the practices.”

Ren gripped tightly onto the loose fabric of his uniform pants. “We need to go back...”

“Go back? You mean to the palace?” Ryuji asked.

“Yeah. There’s gotta be something we can do. Maybe Morgana knows something?”

“You wanna ask that cat for advice?”

Ren was silent and they both dropped the subject for the time being.

**x x x x x**

Mishima was on the court during volleyball practice, standing in a line made up of the other players. They were practicing their routine drills of receiving the ball when it was set. One after another, each boy in line would hit the ball back over the net when it came towards them, then go to the back of the line. 

Coach Kamoshida told everyone that practice would not end until they were able to do a perfect run of receives. If anyone missed the ball or failed to get it over the net, they’d all have to start again.

Practice was wearing on and Kamoshida forbade any breaks for rest or water until they got it right. 

“Alright, last one!” Kamoshida shouted so his voice could fill the whole gymnasium. “You’re up, Mishima!” 

Mishima was tired. His arms and the palms of his hands were red and sore from the leather of the ball hitting against his skin over and over. Still, he stepped forward and did his best to assume the optimal form that Kamoshida had drilled into him.

The ball soared towards him and he knocked it just high and far enough for it to hit the top of the net. It fell onto the court and rolled towards him. The other players groaned, knowing they’d have to try again for a perfect round of receives. Mishima simply sighed and went to the back of the line. Kamoshida blew his whistle and shouted at everyone to start once again.

Practice continued and Kamoshida relentlessly berated the players throughout their drills. When it was finally over, Mishima made his way to the bench and grasped at his water bottle. He tightened his grip around it and drank as if he had been denied water for days. Exhausted, he fell down onto the bench and leaned back to rest. He closed his eyes to try and erase the pain inflicted on him over the past hour or so.

As his eyes were still closed, Shiho Suzui, a player on the girls’ volleyball team, walked over to Mishima and sat down next to him. “Are you okay, Mishima-kun?” She asked quietly.

“Hn…” Mishima struggled to speak. “N-No… I’m… It’s fine.”

“You don’t look fine… You have a cut right there.” Shiho reached to touch right below the cut across Mishima’s cheek. He flinched at her touch. “Oh. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He sighed. “I’m just a little… sensitive right now, I guess…”

“I understand.” Shiho retracted her hand and glanced down at the floor. “Kamoshida was really rough on you today.”

“Hm, yeah… no more than usual, though.” An uncomfortable silence filled the air. “Ah, but… I, uh, I heard you might be getting a starting position soon? That’s incredible, Suzui-san.”

A small smile appeared on Shiho’s face. “Oh. Yeah, maybe!”

"You’ve worked really hard for it. I hope you get it.”

“What about you? Do you think Coach Kamoshida will make you a regular soon?”

Mishima shook his head. “I doubt it. I’m… not very good.” He chuckled pathetically.

"Well, you never know!” Shiho tried forcing some positivity to make Mishima feel better. “If you work really hard, then maybe—”

"He’s not going to stop, is he?” Mishima spat out the words with a hint of anger behind his voice. “Kamoshida, I mean.” He looked around to make sure the coast was clear and saw that he and Shiho were the only two people left in the gym. “He’s not going to stop… hurting me. Us.”

Shiho said nothing. All she did was nod and then silently depart, leaving Mishima to sit alone with his thoughts and wounds.

After some time Mishima changed back into his school uniform and started leaving to go back home. On his way out, he walked past the PE faculty office when he heard a loud thud and then a shout. Something must’ve angered Kamoshida and he didn’t want to stick around to learn what it was.

Mishima’s pace quickened and he almost turned the corner when Kamoshida’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Mishima!”

He froze, then meekly turned around. “Yes, sir?”

“Aren’t you friends with… what’s her name?” He walked up to him, with a more calm demeanor now, but no less intimidating. “On the girls’ team. I’ve seen you two talk. She your girlfriend?”

The only girl that Mishima ever spoke to was Shiho. She wasn’t really his friend, and she definitely wasn’t his girlfriend, but he figured that’s who Kamoshida must’ve been referring to.

“Umm. Suzui-san?”

“That’s the one.” He smiled his signature threatening smile and Mishima’s stomach turned. “Tell her I need to see her, will you?”

“Wh-Why?”

“Doesn’t concern you. I’ll be in my office.”

Kamoshida turned to walk back and Mishima felt sick thinking about sending Shiho to a special coaching session. He spoke again, voice small and weak. “I-I think Suzui-san has already gone home…”

“Mishima!” He walked back and towered over Mishima. “I’m not going to ask again! Unless you’re looking for additional coaching yourself?”

“N-No. No, sir.” He looked down, trying to keep any part of his coach out of his line of sight.

“Hurry up! If you haven’t brought her here in five minutes, I won’t be happy.”

Mishima nodded and with a swift slam of the door, Kamoshida sealed himself in the PE faculty office once more.

**x x x x x**

The next morning, Mishima ran into Shiho on his way to class. They usually smiled or waved at each other when they saw one another in the halls, but today, Shiho just walked past him without any acknowledgment. 

“Suzui?” Mishima turned to walk alongside her. “How are you?”

“Hm? Oh… Hi…”

“Hey. Are you okay?” Shiho stopped walking and Mishima did the same. 

Shiho was holding her textbooks close to her chest, and as he glanced down, Mishima saw new bruises on her wrists. Intense feelings of nausea and guilt overwhelmed him as he realized that Kamoshida was the reason behind those bruises. Even worse, Mishima himself was the reason Shiho even saw him yesterday in the first place.

“S-Suzui… did he…?” He didn’t want to say it. He didn’t know if he even could say it.

She nodded silently, her now lifeless eyes filling with tears. “Sorry. I… I have to go. I’m sorry you had to see me like this.”

“No. No, it’s okay. I—”

She was gone before he could say anything more. There wasn’t anything he could say anyway.

**x x x x x**

Shiho stopped going to practice. Mishima hadn’t seen her all week and the guilt he felt was weighing on him more and more. Along with feeling responsible for putting Shiho through something undoubtedly traumatic, he was concerned for her wellbeing. He kept thinking about asking Ann Takamaki if she knew anything. Maybe she knew what happened and whether or not Shiho was at least holding it together. Ann was in his class, so he had plenty of opportunities to just walk up and ask her, but he couldn’t get the courage to.

After class one day, he saw Ann leaving and tried to catch up to her to finally talk to her. He almost did until he saw her walk into an alleyway to meet up with Ren and Ryuji.

He knew Ryuji had become friends with the transfer student, but he hadn’t noticed Ann hanging out with them before.

Mishima was about to just go home and wait until tomorrow, but something compelled him to approach her now. The thought that maybe he was interrupting an important conversation didn’t cross his mind.

He hurried across the street and just as he made it over to them, he heard a robot-like voice coming out of a phone.

_Beginning navigation._

Reality started to twist and warp and Mishima suddenly found himself in a world completely foreign to him. He saw an enormous castle standing before him. The sight alone was difficult for him to comprehend. He knew he was just at the school and then suddenly he was somewhere completely different. His brain tried to make sense of what was going on. Maybe he passed out or was hallucinating? 

Ren and the others were further ahead, still unaware of Mishima’s presence. They were wearing leather outfits and, after closer inspection, seemed to be conversing with a cat-like creature. He cautiously stepped towards them, hoping they were real and he could ask them what was going on. Mostly, he was hoping he could wake himself from whatever fugue state he might’ve been in.

Immediately after Mishima followed the others into the castle, he was apprehended by several huge shadow knights. “Ah! Agh, let go!” Mishima pleaded.

The others were hidden behind various busts and pillars, trying to figure out why Mishima was there and how best to save him.

“Joker!” Skull whisper-shouted. “What’s Mishima doing here?”

“Is that really him?” Panther asked. “What if it’s just a cognition?”

Joker lunged to go after Mishima, but Mona pulled him back. “Stop! You might attract more shadows!”

Mishima continued to struggle until a golden-eyed Kamoshida entered. “K-Kamoshida?”

The shadow chuckled maniacally, “Well, well, if it isn’t the talentless Mishima… Intruding on my castle grounds?”

“N-No! Let me go!” Mishima struggled to break free, but it was hopeless.

“Struggling, eh? You? You know it’s no use. I should just kill you right here.”

He shut his eyes tight and frantically tried to escape, the knights’ grips only getting tighter. “No! Not like this! I need to s-stop you!”

“Stop me? Yeah right. Guards! Execute him.”

“N-No…” Mishima whimpered and stopped struggling.

Kamoshida’s shadow laughed as a cognitive version of Shiho walked up to it. “Master~!” She giggled.

Hearing Shiho’s voice, Mishima immediately looked up, “S-Suzui?”

As she laughed, she cozied up to it more, “You’re so cool, Kamoshida~!”

“After I execute this intruder, I’m going to have some fun with you.” The shadow put its arm around Shiho and brought her closer against its body.

Mishima shouted out helplessly. “Don’t you dare touch her!”

“Oh?” It mused playfully. “Does this upset you?” It laughed as it ran its hand along Shiho’s back.

"Stop it!”

“Well, well, well… looks like someone’s got the hots for Suzui!”

“Shut up! Y-You… You… bastard!”

Kamoshida’s shadow chuckled, “Maybe before I execute you… I’ll make you watch as I have my way with Suzui over here…”

“No!” Mishima fought back as hard as he could to release himself from the shadow knights’ grasp, but to no avail. He untensed his muscles, ready to give up. “No…”

Suddenly, Joker revealed himself from behind the bust. “Mishima! Don’t give in!”

“Amamiya?” He turned to his classmate and just then, more knights shuffled over to Ren and seized him as well.

“Two intruders, eh? Well, that just means one more audience member for this little show.”

“Oh, Kamoshida~!” Shiho laughed brightly. “You’re so bad~!”

“Suzui…” Mishima spoke under his breath.

Just then, a mysterious and mystical voice rang in his head.

_“Well, well, are you still holding back?_

_Will you merely watch as she suffers at his hand?_

_Don’t you want to take a stand against injustice?”_

“Yes…” Mishima fought to speak.

_“Excellent. Now we must commence with the contract._

_I am thou, thou art I._

_Thou hast found strength buried amongst weakness._

_The spirit of revolution has sparked anew inside yourself._

_Revolt against the strong and embolden the meek!”_

Mishima grasped onto the mask that appeared on him and ripped it off furiously. An elegant and beautiful demigoddess with a bright aura surrounding her manifested inside the castle. “I’m ready!” Mishima shouted as he finally broke free. “Mayari!”

The name of his newly born Persona shot out of Mishima naturally and powerfully. He ripped off his mask, a rounded crescent-shaped cover that was tinted midnight blue with golden accents along it. As blood dripped from the area that the mask was covering, Mayari swirled around him and Mishima’s outfit changed from his Shujin uniform, to an elegant and sharp pinstriped suit with pointed shoes. The dark blue tones of his suit were complemented with a leather trench coat draped over his shoulders. Mishima placed one hand on top of the fedora that was casually resting on his head and pointed forward at the shadow king. “Chastise them, Mayari!”

Mayari spun around as Mishima summoned her. She was an extravagant demigoddess with warm, reddish-brown skin and wavy dark hair that was lengthy and flowed in an entrancing way. Her right eye shone a light grey similar to moonlight, while her left eye had a scar across it. Bright golden jewelry such as earrings and bracelets adorned her body and contributed to her luminous aura. She raised her arms up, harnessing a light gravity spell and aiming it directly at the knights who apprehended Joker. The knights fell to the ground and released their grip around him. He fell to his knees but smiled slowly, ripping off his own mask and summoning Arsène.

“Persona!” Joker shouted as Arsène appeared. He cast a curse spell on the remaining guards and they fell as well. Kamoshida’s shadow stepped backwards, frightened. Joker shot his gaze towards Mishima, who was struggling to steady his breath. He had a passionate resolve, however, to fight. Mishima gave Joker an affirmative nod and he smiled. They both jumped forward simultaneously, away from the guards and toward the lecherous king.

It laughed a bit to keep up its façade. “You really think you two can stop me? Tch, pathetic.” It turned towards the cognitive Shiho and brought her in closer.

Mishima stamped his foot down on the ground and screamed. “No! You get your hands off her!”

“Mishima…” Joker put his arm in front of him to stop him from approaching further. “That’s not the real Shiho… stay calm.”

"Not the real Shiho…?” He groaned, frustrated.

Another boisterous laugh radiated throughout the castle hall. “Nice try, kids, but you’ll have to work a hell of a lot harder to beat me!” With that, it snapped its fingers and more shadow knights rushed into the room. They were bigger and even stronger. Mishima was a little intimidated but he still stepped forward towards them. “Amamiya… let’s go for it.”

"No.”

“What?”

“You just awakened to your persona and we’re outnumbered. Let’s retreat for now.”

Reluctantly, Mishima nodded and stepped back. The two turned around and headed back towards the entrance, reconvening with the others before leaving the palace.

**x x x x x**

As the sun began to set, Mishima followed Ren on the train to Yongen. Ren relayed all the information he had learned about the metaverse through Morgana and his own experiences there.

“So… it’s like cognitive psience?” Mishima looked down at his shoes, lost in thought.

"Cognitive science?” Ren mused.

“Ah!” Mishima laughed a bit. “Cognitive psience. P-S-I-E-N-C-E. A mix of the psyche and regular science. So, it’s the study of the mind’s conscious and unconscious and these “palaces” are a manifestation of an individual’s distorted desires. We were literally in Kamoshida’s heart, then…” He saw Ren nod. “And anyone can have a palace if their desires become distorted enough?”

“Yep.”

“And the treasure? That’s the root of those desires? So stealing it is kind of like stealing the desires themselves… Interesting.”

The train made its way to the Yongen-Jaya station and the two students got off the train and started walking towards Café Leblanc. Ren led the way around the backstreets and Mishima obediently followed. Ren turned his head towards Mishima. “You have a better grasp of this stuff than Ryuji does.”

Mishima chuckled lightly. “Sakamoto tries his best, I’m sure! But still, that’s a lot to take in. I’m exhausted, too. I can’t wait to steal that treasure, though!”

Ren stopped short. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Mishima stopped, too. “What is it? What did I say?”

“I… I don’t know if you should go back there.”

“But we have to stop Kamoshida, don’t we?”

“Listen, Mishima—”

“What? We can’t just let Kamoshida do those things anymore!”

A deep sigh came out of Ren. “I know, and we won’t. But it seems dangerous to let you go back in there. We’re already in the middle of the infiltration. We know how it works, but you don’t.”

“Then I’ll learn! I have a persona, too…”

“Mishima…” Ren placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, but Mishima quickly knocked it off.

“No! I… I don’t care what you say, but I’m going back there! Even if I have to all by myself!”

"You can’t. It’s too dangerous.”

His breath hitched, and he shut his eyes tight, clenching his fist. “I… I don’t care!”

“Mishima.” Ren pleaded, but Mishima had already turned away from him and started running back towards the train station. 

Ren exhaled, exhausted from his trip in the metaverse and told himself he’d try to talk some sense into Mishima the next day. He turned back and walked into Café Leblanc.

**x x x x x**

The next morning, Ren met up with Ann and Ryuji in the courtyard. Ryuji slammed his fist against one of the vending machines. “Dammit. That idiot! He’s just gonna go running into that palace all by himself? He’ll get killed!”

Ren nodded. “I know.”

Morgana poked his head out of Ren’s bag. “He hasn’t had the same training the rest of us have. He’ll slow us down at best, and get himself killed at worst.”

Ann stood up, determined. “We have to stop him!”

Ryuji scoffed. “Like it’ll really be that easy.”

“I agree.” Ren put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the vending machine. “He seemed very determined.”

“Still…” Ann turned to Ren. “We can’t just let him do this.”

“I’ll talk to him again after class.”

Ryuji and Ann nodded, then the three dispersed to head towards their respective classrooms.

As Ren walked across the threshold of class 2-D, he noticed Mishima was not at his desk. He stopped for a second, but then continued on to his seat, convincing himself that Mishima would show up to class soon.

Ms. Kawakami stepped to the front of the class and hushed everyone to begin the lecture. “Okay, everyone. Settle down. Let’s start homeroom.”

Ren’s gaze drifted towards Mishima’s still empty desk and he felt his stomach drop. He sat through all of the day’s lectures while worry kept piling up in his mind. Mishima could’ve already been in the metaverse by now. If he went in alone, he wouldn’t make it back out. He secretly took out his phone and texted in the group chat he had with Ann and Ryuji.

**Ren:** Mishima isn’t in class.

**Ryuji:** Say what? Where’s he at?

**Ann:** He probably went into the metaverse.

**Ryuji:** That guy is too reckless.

**Ren:** Let’s go in after him.

**Ann:** Are you sure?

**Ren:** Once class is over.

**Ryuji:** You got it, man.

**Ann:** Roger.

The minute the last lecture of the day was over and class had ended, Ann and Ren met Ryuji at the front of the school.

Ryuji rushed towards them. “Hey. I’m here. What’s the plan? We goin’ in there after him?” 

“Yup!” Morgana mewed.

“Let’s go.” Ren pulled out his phone.

Ann bit her lip. “Let’s just be careful, alright? We’re just going to find Mishima and get him out of there, okay?”

“Okay, okay!” Ryuji groaned. “Now enough yappin’ and let’s go!”

With that, Ren started up the nav app.

_Beginning navigation._

The four stormed the castle, navigating through the halls of the building and defeating all the shadows they came across. After a long while, they all became exhausted and still saw no sign of Mishima.

“It’s no use, man.” Skull panted, looking at Joker. “We’ve looked all over this castle and he’s not here. I hate it to say it, but…”

Just then, they all heard a voice coming from the next room. “Punish them, Mayari!”

Joker stood up straight. “Mayari… that’s Mishima’s persona, right?”

“Dude!” Skull patted his hand on Joker’s shoulder. “We found him! Let’s get in there!”

They ran through the doors and caught up to Mishima standing up against several shadows.

“Mishima!” Panther shouted after him.

Mishima turned to Panther briefly and then back at the shadows. “What are you all doing here? This is my fight. Not yours.” 

“You’re wrong!”

“I’ve got this. Just leave.”

“Mishima.” Joker stepped forward. “I’m sorry about not letting you join us. But please, let us help now. You’re not alone in this.”

Skull joined him. “He’s right, man! You gotta chill. We all have something against that asshole. But you can’t just come in here alone to stop him!’

Mayari attacked several of the guard shadows at once and they fell to their knees, weak. Mishima scoffed lightly. “I got this.”

Panther yelled. “Mishima! Let us help you!”

“Do what you want.”

Joker, Panther, Skull, and Mona all rushed behind Mishima and summoned their personas. With all of their efforts combined, they defeated all of the shadows in the room. They all tried to catch their breath as Mishima’s knees buckled and he collapsed. Joker rushed to his side and lifted him up to a sitting position, letting Mishima rest his weight on him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…” Mishima spat, a little ashamed.

Mona walked up to him. “Hey, rookie. You’re a good fighter.”

“Thanks.”

Panther knelt down next to them. “You really are. We could really use you on our team.”

“Yeah, dude.” Skull agreed. “You’d be a huge help. I don’t know if we can steal Kamoshida’s treasure without you.”

“He’s right.” Joker helped Mishima up to standing. “We need you.”

Mishima was silent for a moment, then smiled. “I’d be honored to work alongside you all.”

“Yeah!” Skull enthusiastically hit Mishima on his back, a little too hard perhaps. “Hey, now that we got a breather, I have to ask…” He scanned Mishima’s outfit. “What the hell is with that getup?”

“Oh! You like it? It’s reminiscent of the Yakuza, no?”

“No.”

“I think it’s kinda cool!” Panther smiled. “It… suits you?”

Mishima smiled back. “Thanks!”

Mona informed the rest of the group. “His outfit is supposed to be a reflection of his idea of a rebel.”

“Ah! That makes sense. After all, the Yakuza are the most feared organization in Japan. Can you imagine going up against a member of such a large organized crime syndicate?”

Skull sighed deeply. “Jesus, man, you’re pretty lame.”

“Am I supposed to be offended by a _pirate_?” Mishima teased.

Panther stepped between the two. “No fighting! We’re a team now!”

“Oh, that’s right!” Mona bounced up and down. “Now that you’re part of the team, shouldn’t you have a codename?”

“Codename?” Mishima repeated.

“Yeah! If we want to conceal our identities, we shouldn’t use our real names.” Morgana pointed at Ren. “Like, our wildcard over here is Joker!”

"What’s everyone else’s?”

“I’m Skull.”

“Panther!”

Mona smiled. “And mine’s Mona!”

Mishima looked at all of them, committing their codenames to memory. “Joker, Skull, Panther, and Mona.” 

“Any ideas on what you want to be called?”

Skull excitedly offered the first suggestion. “Oh! Oh! Moonboy!”

“Uh, no thank you.” Mishima touched his mask. “Maybe Luna?”

“Luna? Ain’t that kinda girly?”

“Well, my persona is feminine, right? I think it’s fitting.”

Panther smiled. “Luna! It’s pretty.”

“Thank you, Takamaki-san!”

She laughed. “Mishima, you can call me Ann.”

"Oh, okay. Then, please, call me Yuuki.”

Skull interjected. “Ain’t we supposed to be using codenames?”

“Ah! Right! Thank you, Panther. Skull.”

Mona laughed. “All right. Panther, Skull, Joker, Luna… are you ready to start this mission?” They all nodded and gave affirmative responses. “Then it’s decided! Let’s take the King’s treasure!”


	2. Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Oh, all these minutes passing, sick of feeling used_
> 
> _If you wanna break these walls down, you’re gonna get bruised_
> 
> _Now my neck is open wide, begging for a fist around it_
> 
> _Already choking on my pride, so there's no use crying about it”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the reception and support on the first chapter! It means so much!
> 
> cw: physical abuse

Joker picked up a book titled “The Slave Book.” He flipped through it and saw a list of names. 

Skull leaned over and gasped. “Yoooo! Those are all the dudes on the volleyball team!”

Luna squeezed between the two boys and took the book from Joker. “Let me see that.” He scanned the list of names, seeking his own, and found what he was looking for at the bottom of the page. “Oh…” He sighed and shut the book. “Let’s hold onto this. It might be useful later.”

Joker nodded as Luna tucked the book away into his trench coat. The group wandered along the castle halls, defeating all of the shadows that crossed their path. On their way to finding a room where the cognition was weak and they could rest, they found two other books; “The King Book” and “The Queen Book.”

“Think we can use these to open the door from earlier?” Panther suggested.

“Yeah.” Joker affirmed. 

All of them traveled back to a room lined with books and placed the new books they had collected in their respective places. They heard an unlocking sound and a secret room revealed itself. Pictures of Shiho covered the walls and an eerie aura hung in the air. Luna slowly stepped into the room and looked at each individual picture.

"Suzui-san…” Luna mumbled under his breath, feeling an incredible weight in his chest.

Panther clenched her fist tight and stared at the ground, unmoving.

“Ah, hey, you two gonna be okay?” Skull asked, concerned.

Panther lifted her head up high and gave Skull a quick nod. “We’re going to make him pay. Right, Luna?” 

Luna stood, disgusted with the sight before him, but then turned to give Panther a look of determination. “Right.”

They continued to travel within the castle until finally they reached the room where the treasure resided. A hazy cloud hung suspended in the air and the gang crowded around it.

"Is that the treasure?” Luna examined the cloud.

Mona nodded. “Yup. It just hasn’t materialized yet.”

“Whaddya mean?” Skull asked.

“The palace ruler has to be made aware that we’re after the treasure, so it can materialize, and that’s when we’ll steal it. We need to send out a calling card.”

“Oh, man! So, like, real thieves!”

"Yes, Skull. Now, once we send the calling card, we only have about a day before the treasure will disappear. We need to send it and then come straight back here to steal it. Now that we have our infiltration route, do you think you all are capable of that?” The remaining members all nodded. “Good! Now let’s head back and send the calling card! We need to make sure Kamoshida sees it, too…”

Luna stepped forward. “I can take care of that.”

“Good then. I’ll explain anything you guys are curious about later. For now, we should head out of here. Joker, I’ll leave it up to you when we decide to send the calling card.”

“Got it,” Joker responded.

The gang collected themselves and headed out of the castle.

**x x x x x**

The next morning, Ryuji ran to catch up to Mishima on the way to school. The two had talked about setting up the calling card to give to Kamoshida. They agreed that Ryuji would create the calling card, and then it would be Mishima’s job to get it into the P.E faculty office. After all, Morgana had told them that the owner of the palace would need to see the calling card directly in order for the treasure to materialize. After that, there was only a narrow window of time before they could infiltrate the palace and steal the treasure. The pressure of it all started to build and weigh on Mishima, but he was ready for the challenge. They had to do this.

“Okay, man, now don’t laugh at it when you read it, all right?” Ryuji requested as he slyly pulled out the calling card he had made, and slipped it into Mishima’s pants pocket. “Ann read it over and said it sounded like something a grade schooler would write…”

Mishima nodded and patted against his pocket to secure the card in place. As he began to walk away from Ryuji, a hand rested on his shoulder and turned him around. Mishima flinched lightly and turned to see the blond still behind him. “Hey. You going to be okay?”

“Mhm,” He responded, a little dismissively. After awakening to his persona and standing up to Kamoshida in the castle, he felt hardened. He was determined to go after Kamoshida by any means necessary, and any amount of fear he had would need to disappear for him to do this.

“What if he—?”

Mishima shrugged Ryuji’s hand off his shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”

He frowned. “Alright. Just be careful.” Ryuji hesitantly walked ahead of Mishima and left him alone. He stood there for a minute, mentally preparing himself for following through the mission.

All day during class, Mishima couldn’t stay still. His constant foot tapping and nervous fidgeting was apparent to Ann and Ren. 

After class ended, they both approached Mishima as he was making his way to the P.E. faculty office.

“Yuuki!” Ann called out for him and he turned to face her.

“Hi, Ann.”

“Are you…?” Her voice trailed off, knowing Mishima already knew what she was concerned about.

“I’m going there right now.”

Ren gave Mishima an encouraging smile. “We’re counting on you.”

“I know.” Before continuing down the hall, he returned Ren’s smile. As he turned the corner and approached the room, his heart rate quickened. With a shaky hand he slowly tested to see if the door was unlocked. Easily, the door opened, and he cautiously stepped in the room, leaving the door ajar.

With light steps, he quietly made his way to Kamoshida’s desk. He took the calling card out of his pocket and scanned over the words. A small chuckle escaped him, accompanied with an eye roll. Just as he was about to set the card down and leave, the sound of Kamoshida clearing his throat echoed throughout the room.

A chill went down his spine and he didn’t dare turn around. Instead, he opted to stare at the floor, hoping he’d just be able to sink right into it.

“Mishima.” The low, gravelly voice commanded and Mishima turned to face him. Almost as if he had been conditioned to do so. “What are you doing here? Came to beg for some special coaching?” Kamoshida took a step into the room, calmly closing the door and locking it behind him.

“No, Kamoshida.” Mishima replied coolly.

“Oh? What happened to Mr. Kamoshida? What happened to ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’?” Kamoshida slowly approached him and Mishima recoiled reflexively, prompting a small chuckle from his coach. “I think you’ve forgotten how to properly address me.”

“Sorry, sir…” He apologized through clenched teeth.

As Kamoshida got closer to him, he tensed up. Kamoshida raised his hand slowly, causing Mishima to flinch. The raised hand didn’t make contact with Mishima and instead ran through the coach’s hair. Another chuckle. “Pathetic…” Kamoshida then quickly smacked his hand across Mishima’s cheek without warning.

It started. Again.

Instantly, redness flooded to Mishima’s cheek and he brought his hand up to it. It felt hot and it stung. His mind started racing and he was overwhelmed with emotions of insecurity, weakness, and fear. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Not anymore. He was stronger now. What was all that in the metaverse? He defeated dozens of strong shadows and he stood up to King Kamoshida, didn’t he? He wasn’t that weak person anymore.

“Stop.” Mishima commanded in a low tone.

“Trying to be intimidating, are we?” He towered over Mishima as he stepped closer. “What’s gotten into you?” He punctuated his question with a swift blow to his victim’s gut.

“Agh!” Mishima held onto his stomach now, doubled over with the wind knocked out of him.

Kamoshida simply glared at him with a look of apathy. “That’s a much more familiar sight. Know your place. You’re just worthless scum.”

“I’m… not…” He choked out the words as he gasped for more air.

“No?” His heavy hand reached towards Mishima again and he grasped onto his hair, pulling his head up to make eye contact. “You’re useless and talentless, Mishima. Why do you think you have no friends at this school?”

Determined to not let Kamoshida break him, Mishima shut his eyes tight to keep from looking into the angry and piercing eyes above him. “That’s… not… true…” It was hard for him to speak, but he couldn’t back down.

The hard and dirty sole of Kamoshida’s shoe then hit Mishima across the side of his ribs and sent him tumbling to the ground, his face on the floor with tears starting to well up in his eyes.

“Stop crying, you pussy!” Mishima’s face was pushed further against the floor as his assailant pressed his foot on him, keeping him pinned to the ground. “You disgust me, you know that? You tried to act all high and mighty, but you’ll always be the weak link on the volleyball team who can’t even score a point. Pitiful. I don’t know why a scrawny weakling like you even bothers at this point.”

Tears instantly spilled over Mishima’s eyelids and ran down his cheeks, small sobs escaping him. Everything was useless now. He was useless. “I’m sorry…” Mishima broke.

“Tch. _'Sorry.'_ Whatever. Just pull yourself together and get out of my office.”

Mishima nodded obediently. “Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and…” He turned on his heel to look down at Mishima cowering on the ground. “Fetch Suzui again for me, will you?” Kamoshida walked out of the room, a loud door slam emphasizing his exit. 

Mishima lied on the floor, clutching his legs up to his chest and releasing all the tears he tried and failed to hold back during the assault.

Moments later a voice rang in Mishima’s head.

_“Is this it for you?_

_Is this the moment you break?_

_Is all the progress you made suddenly wasted?”_

“N-No…”

_“Then, you must battle and fight for the timid souls like you._

_Do not give up._

_Protect the weak from those filled with distortion._

_The burden of this task rests on you._

_Will you bear it?”_

Mishima struggled to lift himself up to a standing position. “Y-Yes.” He breathed heavily, his whole body feeling battered. “I will… Mayari.”

In the corner of his eye, he saw the calling card on the floor. He assumed it fell out of his hand during the beating. Kamoshida must not have noticed it, either. He gradually dragged himself towards it and picked it up. With a deep sigh, he put the card back in his pocket and left the room.

With the weight of his body feeling heavier than usual, Mishima struggled up the stairs to get to the Shujin Academy rooftop, where the rest of the group agreed to meet. The door swung open and Mishima was greeted with expectant faces.

"Did ya do it?” Ryuji questioned. “We about to steal that bastard’s heart?”

The newly-injured boy shook his head. “I couldn’t do it… he caught me, and then…”

Ann stood up and rushed to Mishima’s side. “Yuuki…”

“Someone must’ve really pissed him off today. I didn’t even do anything and he just…”

“It’s okay.” Ren spoke up and went to comfort Mishima.

Ryuji let out a loud groan and kicked at one of the desks. “He can’t keep doin’ this shit to you! We’re gonna make him pay!”

“I…” Shame filled Mishima as he took a step back away from Ren and Ann. “I couldn’t get him to read the calling card… But…” He inhaled sharply. “I think I should try again.”

“Dude. No. He’s just gonna hurt you again.”

“I can’t give up, though!” The determination squeaked out of him and he clenched his fists tight. “He… he can’t keep doing this! I won’t let him! He told me to get Suzui-san… and I… I won’t let him hurt her again!”

Morgana sidled up next to Mishima’s leg. “Then you’ll have to go back to his office and deliver the card to him directly. Make sure he reads it in front of you, too. Only then can we steal his treasure.”

“Why don’t I go in there instead?” Ryuji offered. “I can handle it.”

“No.” Mishima had a resolute look in his eyes. “I’ll go back in there. I have to face him.”

After a moment of silence and tension hanging in the air, everyone eventually agreed. A soft pat on the back from Ryuji and a look of belief from Ren was enough to fill Mishima with the confidence to face his attacker once more.

He returned to the hall and stood in wait for Kamoshida to arrive back at his office. Moments later, when he saw the intimidating man enter the room, he quietly followed him in.

Kamoshida sat down at his desk, with his back to the door. He sensed a presence behind him. “Suzui. Welcome back. Have a seat and close the door behind you.”

Wordlessly, Mishima shut the door and stepped further into the room. “Um. Sir?” He assumed the façade of frightened prey, knowing that standing up to the predator before him would just make him even angrier.

Regardless, he did get angry, dropping his clipboard onto his desk and turning to face Mishima. “Who the hell told you to come back here? You didn’t get enough the first time? I told you to fetch that girl for me.”

“I know, sir. Sorry, sir. I… I couldn’t find her. I came to deliver this to you…” He said while tentatively pulling out the card and handing it to Kamoshida.

Kamoshida snatched it from him and quickly glanced over it. “And what is this supposed to be? A prank?” His voice was low and steady, but there was still anger behind it.

“I don’t know anything about it. I was just told to give it to you.”

“You mean to tell me you don’t know anything about this?”

“No, sir.”

With a condescending scoff, he threw the card in the waste bin. “Waste of my time. Get the hell out of my office, Mishima.”

Mishima bowed and obeyed Kamoshida’s instruction. He started to head for the roof to tell the others that the calling card had been delivered successfully. All that was left to do now was steal the treasure.

**x x x x x**

The next day, they all went to Kamoshida’s palace. The group quickly rushed into the room where the treasure resided and were met with a surprising and disappointing sight. Luna slowly walked forward towards a hazy cloud suspended in the air. “I… I don’t get it. Isn’t the treasure supposed to have materialized?”

Mona hopped over next to Luna. “It should have.”

“Then where the hell is it?” Skull asked demandingly.

Mona shrugged helplessly. “I dunno. It should be here.” He gave Luna a suspicious look. “Kamoshida did read the calling card you gave him, right?”

Luna nodded. “Yes! I saw him read the whole thing!”

“Hmm…” Mona tapped his paw against his chin in thought. “This is not good…”

Panther copied the motion, giving it thought herself. “Are we too late? Did it take us too long to get here?”

Mona shook his head. “That shouldn’t be the case. Once the calling card is sent, the treasure materializes for about a day. It should be here.”

Skull rushed to the cloud in the center of the room and ran his hand through it. “There’s really nothin’ here…” He turned to face Mona. “What the hell, cat? What did we do wrong?”

“I don’t know!”

“I thought you had all the answers!”

Mona growled. “This is my first time stealing a treasure, too!”

Joker approached Luna, who was noticeably overwhelmed and puzzled. He put a hand on Luna’s shoulder in reassurance. “You okay?”

Luna stared at his hands and shook his head. “I… I must’ve done something wrong. I screwed it up.”

Everyone else turned their attention to Luna. Mona stepped closer to him. “Can you tell us everything that happened? Did Kamoshida say anything after he read the card?”

“Um…” Luna tried to recall the exchange. “He just said it was a waste of his time. Then he told me to get out…”

“I see. I see…”

A look of sadness appeared on his face. “I messed up, didn’t I?”

“Well…” Mona sighed deeply. “You aren’t a threat to him.”

“Huh?”

Skull scoffed. “Luna ain’t a threat to anybody. Was that supposed to be part of the strategy? Because I know he doesn’t stand a chance against me, let alone Kamoshida.”

“Hey!” Luna let out a defensive shout.

“Am I wrong?” 

Luna backed down and sighed. He kicked at the floor and Skull softened a bit, coming close to him. 

“Hey, I didn’t really mean it like that. You fight pretty good actually. But I mean… the real Kamoshida doesn’t know that. He just sees you as–”

“The weak link on the volleyball team who can’t even score a point.” Luna finished. “I know.” Skull grew silent, as did the rest of the group. “S-Sorry. This… This whole thing was a mistake. You all can do this without me.”

Luna started to run out of the room and Panther chased after him. “Luna! Wait!”

“Let him go.” Skull said calmly, causing Panther to stop short.

Skull, Panther, Mona, and Joker stayed in the room with the unmaterialized treasure while Luna began navigating out of the palace. He ran quickly through the castle halls, narrowly avoiding any shadow he came across. Finally, he made it to the outside of the castle. No one was nearby so he took a minute to catch his breath. Slowly, he retrieved his phone and pulled up the nav app. Just as he was about to press it and go back to the real world, he faltered. He thought back on a conversation he had with Shiho before.

**x**

“Mishima-kun!” Shiho called from the end of the hallway as Mishima was heading up the stairs to go to the roof. He stopped at the bottom step and turned around to face her as she caught up to him. “Mishima-kun…”

“Suzui-san! Hi. Um… is everything alright?”

She looked away from him. “Yes. I think so…”

“Good.”

“Yeah, um. I was just going to ask… did you get called in for a coaching session today?”

Mishima clutched his hand tightly. “Yeah…”

Shiho’s eyes darted away from him. “I thought so.”

“Hey, it’s no big deal. Don’t worry about me. We don’t have to do that today.”

Shiho frowned. “You look really hurt.” She put her hand out to hold Mishima’s, making brief eye contact as if to ask if the gesture was okay. Mishima gave a small nod and she lightly wrapped her fingers around his hand. “It won’t take long, I just don’t want anything to get infected.”

He shrugged. “It’s fine. I mean, it won’t. I can bandage myself up when I get home.”

“Oh. Okay…” Shiho looked away sadly, and Mishima broke down.

“Actually, um. Let’s go. I should probably get it taken care of now.”

Shiho smiled. It was small, but still bright and comforting. She tugged on Mishima’s hand and before long, they ended up in the empty Shujin gymnasium. 

Shiho motioned for Mishima to sit down on the bench as she retrieved materials from her bag. Antiseptic, cotton swabs, bandages, an ice compress, and bindings. She went through the typical routine, but her pace was slower than usual. Delicately, she put antiseptic on a cotton swab and reached towards one of Mishima’s cuts that resided just below his hairline. “Um… it’s gonna–”

“Sting. I know.” Mishima shut his eyes tight. “It’s fine.”

Shiho nodded and lightly applied the antiseptic to the cut. Mishima inhaled sharply and Shiho mumbled several apologies as she searched for more cuts on him. “So. Do you think Tsukino-san is going to get a starting position?”

“Maybe.” He opened his eyes slowly and glanced at Shiho, who was focused on treating him. “She has a great spike, but… you—ah!”

“Oh! Sorry!” Shiho set aside the cotton swab and lightly pressed her hand into Mishima’s side, which she had accidently bumped her elbow against. The gentle pressure elicited a small groan from Mishima and Shiho pouted.

“Did he…?” Shiho trailed off and Mishima nodded, a sort of telepathy that had developed over time between the two at work. “Let me put on these bandages and then I’ll ice you, okay?” Another caring nod. “Anyway… you were saying?”

“Ah… just that… I think you should definitely get starter.”

“Hm.” Shiho carefully stuck a band-aid on one of Mishima’s cuts and she sighed. “I think I’m going to quit the team.”

“You what? Ow!” Mishima held onto his pained side that now hurt even more due to the quick motion he made. “You’re… quitting?” He asked, breathing in and out slowly.

“I can’t deal with Kamoshida anymore.”

“But, Suzui-san… you love volleyball, and you’re really good at it!”

Shiho tried to calm Mishima down. “Easy. You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“Sorry. It’s just that… you can’t let Kamoshida have that kind of power over you.”

The last bandage had been placed on the cuts and Shiho slowly lifted up Mishima’s shirt to assess the bruise on his side. He shut his eyes again to prep for the pain that he knew was coming. “Am I supposed to keep letting him hurt me? You should quit, too, Mishima-kun.”

“I’m…”

“I know why you joined the team. Why you’re still on it.” Shiho carefully took an ice compress and pressed it against Mishima’s bruise, who had minimal reaction to the stinging coldness against his skin. “You wanted a place to belong. You wanted friends. I get that. You have me, though.” Shiho smiled warmly. “We can be friends, Mishima-kun. Kamoshida won’t have any power over us. We’ll be the ones with the power for once. He won’t own us anymore.”

Mishima shut his eyes tighter. “But… he needs to pay for what he’s done to all of us…”

Shiho then held onto Mishima’s hand and squeezed it tight. “He will. We just have to have faith, okay? He wants to break us, but… we won’t break, will we? We won’t give up.”

“We won’t give up.”

Shiho smiled. “Exactly.” She handed Mishima an elastic bandage.

“Thanks.” He smiled weakly as he took it. “I’ll put this on later. But, thank you.”

“I’m always here. But hopefully this is the last time we see each other in these circumstances, right?”

“Right.”

“No giving up, okay?”

“No giving up.”

Shiho pulled Mishima in closer to her and gently brought him in for an embrace. “Okay. You can go up to the roof now. I’ll see you tomorrow, Mishima-kun.”

“See you tomorrow, Suzui-san.”

**x**

Luna fought back tears as he stood outside the castle. “No… giving up…” He repeated to himself. 

Just then, he heard grunts and shrieking coming from the castle’s entrance hall. “Joker?” Swiftly, he turned and rushed back to the entrance, listening in on what was going on behind the doors.

“You’re all worthless! No one can defeat King Kamoshida!”

The deep, familiar voice made Luna feel sick and disgusted. He tried to fight back the urge to enter the castle again, but his burning hatred was growing too powerful. In a fit of anger, he burst through the door, only to be greeted by a Shadow Kamoshida, dozens of shadow guards, a cognitive Shiho dressed in a revealing bikini, and the gang all apprehended by shadows.

Quickly, Luna summoned Mayari and cast a gravity spell on the guards who started to approach him. They fell to their knees and a sickening and twisted laugh bellowed out of Shadow Kamoshida.

“So, it looks like Mishima came crawling back, did he? I found your friends, by the way. Infiltrating my castle like they own the place.”

"You let them go!” Luna shouted powerfully.

“I don’t think I will. I’d rather have some fun.” With a shrill sound of a whistle, Luna was apprehended from behind by several other shadow guards.

What followed was a nauseating display of lust from a power-hungry tyrant. As Luna struggled to break free from the hold on him, Kamoshida began to have his way with the others. First, he brought Shiho and Panther close against him, wrapping himself around them. The cognitive Shiho was content and enjoying herself while Panther was doing her best to summon her persona and get away.

“Carmen!” Panther shrieked, in a desperate attempt to save herself and the others. She hastily cast a fire spell on Kamoshida, but it was reflected and injured her instead.

“Panther!” Mona cried out as he was squirming in the clutches of more guard shadows. “You can’t use magic on that thing! It’ll just end up hurting you!”

Panther growled under her breath and relented for the time being, suffering through Kamoshida’s revolting touch. As it ran its fingers across the girls’ skin, a raucous laugh roared out of him. The sound of his tormentor’s jarring voice caused Luna to weaken. Each sound that echoed around the room felt like sharp pins piercing through his brain.

Shadow Kamoshida was not done with its fun. Through its laughter, it commanded the shadows to punish Skull, Mona, and Joker. “Guards. I want you to put those three through a special practice. Break them in.” He turned to Luna with a menacing chuckle. “As for Mishima… you can watch.”

All Luna could do was watch helplessly as the shadows tormented his friends. The shadows were mostly landing physical blows to the boys as they were being restricted by their arms and legs, unable to move much at all. They all cried out for their personas in last-ditch efforts to defend themselves, but their attacks either missed or reflected back at them.

“They’re… too… powerful…” Mona struggled to speak as he was pinned to the ground by a particularly strong shadow. “How did this happen?”

Luna watched at first but was soon unable to look at the pain being inflicted on his friends. Raw memories began to resurface to his mind, and he tried to fight them back, but it was useless. He felt like he was caught in a rip current, flashbacks flooding towards him without warning. No matter how hard he tried to fight against them, they would hit him full force and without fail, pulling him away from the shore. He was left in the mercy of the moon’s tidal force.

Slap. Slam. Punch. Kick. Blood. Cuts. Bruises. Broken. Worthless. Useless. Scum.

All of it swirled around Luna’s head, hot tears running down his cheeks and an inextinguishable anger brewing inside him. He cried out a frustrated scream, and adrenaline started to pump through him. The shadow guards had a tight hold on him, but he used all of his strength to muster up an attack against them. 

He ran his elbow into the shadow behind him while simultaneously biting down on one who had a grip around his neck. They both released him, and he tumbled to the ground hard. Before they could attack him again, he pulled out his weapon and aimed it carefully.

His weapon was a rifle under the guise of an umbrella. The shadow guards laughed seeing an umbrella pointed at them, but Luna looked at them coldly and seriously. Within an instant, he fired at them and they were defeated. Silence fell in the room and the other shadows stopped in their tracks. Shadow Kamoshida’s eyes widened in fear, but then he gritted his teeth and gave Luna a threatening look.

“Enough of this. Guards—!”

“Persona!” Luna shouted and eliminated all the magic walls that Kamoshida and the other shadows had erected around them.

“Y-You think this is a game?”

Luna ignored him and cast another gravity spell that hit all of the shadows, who fell to the ground, relinquishing their power over Joker, Mona, and Skull. The three boys simply lied on the ground trying to catch their breath and get their bearings.

With cautious steps, Luna approached Kamoshida and aimed his rifle directly at him. “Let them go.” He demanded calmly.

Mona struggled up to standing. “Luna. If you do this then the real Kamoshida could die as well! He’ll completely shut down.”

Luna simply rested his finger on the trigger, his glare boring into the King shadow before him. “Let. Them. Go.”

Fear immediately set into the tyrannical shadow and it did as it was told, letting Ann and Shiho out of its grasp. Luna, however, kept his weapon raised and pointed.

“S-Stop it. Y-You wouldn’t really shoot me, would you?”

“You think I can’t?” Luna questioned, growing noticeably irritated.

The others simply sat and watched, unable to speak or make sense of what was happening. Mona’s words rang in Luna’s mind. Kamoshida could die. Could he really? Would everything be over then? Would no one have to suffer anymore?

“It’s your call, Luna…” Mona shrugged.

“Luna,” Joker said softly. He wasn’t telling him what to do one way or the other, but Joker could tell that something was going on with Luna.

Luna just ignored him, keeping his weapon steady and locked on Kamoshida. His resolve was strong, and he felt determination all throughout him. But mostly, he felt tired. Tired of the pain. Tired of being powerless. He finally had the opportunity to take control.

“No giving up.” Luna squeezed the trigger, and then— 

_Bang._


	3. Coming Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Every single night pray the sun will rise_
> 
> _Every single time make a compromise_
> 
> _Every single night pray the sun will rise, but_
> 
> _It's coming down, down, coming down_
> 
> _He's coming down, down, coming down”_

There was nothing but silence and stillness. Smoke was pouring out of the barrel of the rifle. The bullet that shot out from the barrel had sped straight ahead, right between Kamoshida’s eyes. As quickly as the shot happened, even more quickly was the disappearance of the body. In an instant, Kamoshida had evaporated into black dust. 

No one knew what to do or say, and the quiet settled into everyone’s bodies. Thoughtfully, Luna lowered his weapon down to his side. His expression changed slowly from unwavering determination to guilt and regret. He stared at the empty space where his tormentor had been standing mere seconds before. The weight of his body started to become too much to keep up with, and he collapsed on the ground, rifle tumbling across the floor as he collided against the earth.

Skull was the first to speak up. “H-Hey. Luna…” He walked over to Luna and knelt down next to him. Luna started shuddering and Skull tried to calm him down by rubbing his hand on the sensitive boy’s back. Even though he flinched at first, Skull kept trying to ease him and comfort him. “I-It’s all right. You’re safe. He’s gone.”

Those words didn’t provide too much comfort, but it was better than the silence. Luna nodded at his friend’s attempt to calm him down, but he didn’t move much more after that.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sensation throughout the castle. The walls shook, and the columns started crumbling. Mona hopped up and down, trying to get everyone’s attention. “You guys! The palace is collapsing! Let’s get out of here!”

Everyone except for Luna headed for the exit. Joker turned around and saw him still on the ground, completely immovable. Joker’s diversion of attention caused Skull to look back as well. He rushed back over to Luna and put his arms underneath him to pull him out of the castle. “C’mon, man, we gotta get outta here! The exit’s right there, it ain’t far!”

Luna still didn’t move or speak, he just let Skull drag him out of the castle. They busted through the front entrance doors before any debris could hit them. Joker quickly pulled out his phone and navigated everyone back to the real world.

Once safely in reality again, everyone was trying to catch their breath.

“That was some shit, huh?” Ryuji asked, in an attempt to break the tension and silence.

Ann shoved him and gestured towards Mishima, who looked disturbed and upset. “Ryuji.” She muttered under her breath.

Mishima looked up at Ryuji but still didn’t say anything. Ryuji put his arm around him and squeezed him close. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”

Ryuji’s words felt hollow to Mishima. He turned to look at Morgana. “Kamoshida… is going to shut down?”

Morgana nodded. “That should be what happens.”

“What does that mean… exactly?” Mishima was quiet, but his voice was steady.

“He’s going to die.”

“When?” It wasn’t the most pressing question on Mishima’s mind, but it was still something he was curious about, and it was all he could manage to ask at the moment.

Morgana shrugged. “Could happen at any time, I think.”

Mishima just gave an understanding nod and then looked back at the school. It had gotten dark and seeing the sturdy building standing against the night sky filled Mishima with an uncomfortable feeling. Like a mixture of dread and angst. Whatever was about to happen in the coming days would not be good.

“You gonna be okay?” Ryuji asked, breaking Mishima’s concentration.

“Oh. Uh. Yes. I’ll be fine.” He sighed. “I should probably head home. My parents are probably worried.”

“Yeah. You head home then. See ya later.” Ryuji put his hands in his pockets and walked away from the gang to start going home.

Ann placed a hand on Mishima’s shoulder and gave him a look of sympathy before she headed home herself.

Ren stood with Morgana at his feet as he stared at Mishima.

“What?” Mishima asked, a little harshly.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Ren took a step closer to Mishima, but Mishima took an equidistant step back.

“I’m fine,” He replied defensively.

“I’m not upset with you or anything, okay? I know why you did it.”

Mishima looked away from Ren. “Can we just not talk about it? I really just want to go home.”

“Sure. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah.”

Ren tried to give Mishima a reassuring smile before he left with Morgana in tow. Mishima simply stood in front of the school, his mind now free to completely run rampant with irrational thoughts.

**x x x x x**

There was an assembly that Monday.

Rumors were swirling around that something had happened to Coach Kamoshida, but none of the stories really matched up and there was nothing concrete. Most people were saying that he got fired, or suspended, or he’d be taking a leave of absence. No one had really been prepared for what the news would actually be.

Principal Kobayakawa walked up to the podium and tried to quell all the whispers and murmurs that filled the auditorium. “Settle down, students.” Silence fell across the room and the principal spoke into the microphone. “I’m sure everyone is concerned with the whereabouts of our beloved P.E. teacher, Suguru Kamoshida. I am deeply saddened to share that he passed away due to a stroke a few nights ago.”

Cue the whispers and murmurs.

Mishima was standing in the back of the auditorium, away from Ren, Ann, and Ryuji who were grouped at the front. As everyone in the room started talking, Mishima felt eyes on him and he looked up to see Ren and the others looking back at him. He looked away from them and put his focus on the microphone at the podium, waiting for the staring to stop. It didn’t take long for them all to turn away and begin discussing something amongst themselves.

“Quiet down. Settle down.” The principal continued. “I know this is hard for all of us. Kamoshida was an integral part of Shujin Academy and his loss is something we will all feel. Our condolences are with his family at this time.”

Mishima clenched his fist hard and kept his eyes sternly focused on the microphone. 

So, it was true. Morgana was right. Kamoshida had shut down and now he was dead. All because of him.

“We trust all of you will hold true to the Shujin Academy legacy and reputation by treating each other kindly in this trying time. All of us need to—”

He had stopped listening to Principal Kobayakawa’s words. It was too much to handle. Hearing about his abuser in such a positive light made him sick to his stomach. He was used to hearing those things, but somehow it was different now that he was gone. 

Now that Kamoshida was being mourned, people would only say nice things about him. Stuff about him being “gone too soon” and being “one of the good ones.” Mishima knew there was nothing good about Kamoshida. He was cruel, abusive, sick, and twisted. Nothing was going to change that.

As Mishima was lost in thought, the students in the room started to disperse and the principal walked off the stage. Assuming that the assembly was over, he started to walk back to class. Before he could get anywhere, he felt a hand on his shoulder swing him around to face behind him.

He let out a small sound before he saw Ryuji with Ren and Ann. Ryuji scoffed. “Chill, dude, it’s just me.”

“Ah, s-sorry. I’ve just been on edge lately.”

“You’re always on edge.”

Mishima stuck his hands in his pockets and turned away. “Yeah, I… I don’t have anything to say to you all right now, so… can I just go, please?”

“Yuuki…” Ren called after Mishima, who had started to turn and walk away.

He faced Ren. “Mishima is fine.”

Ren’s face fell. “We should all talk about this. It’s been days and you haven’t spoken to us at all.”

“I have nothing to say.”

“Bullshit,” Ryuji interjected. His tone was harsh and uncaring, which startled Mishima a little.

Mishima sighed at his own inability to stay calm. “Fine. We can talk. I can’t keep avoiding this, I guess.”

“We’re not upset with you, Yuu—Mishima.” Ann bit her lip.

“Can we not talk here, at least? Can we wait until after class?”

Ren nodded. “Let’s meet on the roof.”

“Sure.”

**x x x x x**

The rest of the school day passed by relatively slowly. Ren and Ann were anxious to finally talk to Mishima, but Mishima just wanted to get the talk over with as quickly as possible. He knew that he had to have this talk with everybody, but he really didn’t feel like getting scolded. 

His whole life he felt like everything he did and said was wrong. After a while, he had decided to just be invisible. No one would know or care what he did if they couldn’t notice him in the first place. Being invisible had its perks, and Mishima felt over the last few days that he probably should have just stuck with his typical personality that didn’t stand out at all. But he didn’t want to put up with it anymore. He had become an easy target for Kamoshida and ignored by all his peers. Having to face every single day being scared and alone, just for your only touch and personal connection to be one of pain and hurt, was weighing on him too much. It had to stop. He had to put a stop to it. He had no other choice, didn’t he?

Mishima hadn’t paid any attention to the lectures. He hadn’t been for a long time. There was too much on his mind. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, getting carried away in his thinking helped the school day go by a lot faster. Before he knew it, the last lesson of the day was over, and it was time to meet with Ren and the others. He still didn’t want to go talk to them. He couldn’t face them. They’d never understand why he did what he chose to do. 

Mishima sat at his desk, unmoving.

“Mishima?” Ann spoke gently so as not to startle him.

He looked up at Ann. “Hey. I know. I’ll meet you up there.”

Ren and Ann nodded and walked out of the classroom to head to the roof. Mishima sat, trying to ready himself until he finally got up and went to meet with the others.

The walk up the stairs felt similar to the walks Mishima would make to the P.E. faculty office. 

_“Mishima-kun. Coach needs to see you in his office.”_

Usually, Kamoshida would make a first-year fetch Mishima for him. That’s how it started, anyway. Eventually it evolved into Kamoshida simply giving Mishima a look during practice, and he knew exactly what it meant. Having no choice but to walk towards something you knew was going to hurt you, wasn’t exactly the best feeling. Walking up to the roof today was no different.

Mishima opened up the door and saw sympathetic faces looking back at him. He wasn’t sure what to make of it and cautiously stepped past the threshold. “Go ahead, you guys. Scold me.”

“We don’t want to scold you…” Ann hesitantly stepped closer to Mishima. “We just want to make sure you’re okay. You haven’t answered any of our texts and you’ve been very… quiet.”

“I’ve always been quiet.”

“You _used to be_ quiet.” Ryuji spoke up. “Once you got your persona you seemed more… alive. Now you’re moping around the same way you were before you… um… y’know.”

“I know.”

“What’s the deal, though? Kamoshida’s gone.”

Mishima leaned against the now closed door and shut his eyes tight. “I killed him…”

No one really knew what to say to that. They all stayed silent and waited for Mishima to speak again.

“I killed Kamoshida… I’m no better than him. I’m… I’m worse than him.”

Ren quickly rushed to Mishima’s side to pull him in for a comforting hug, but Mishima just pushed him off.

“Stop!” Mishima started to breathe heavier.

“Hey, dude.” Ryuji stepped close. “Just relax. None of us think you’re worse than him.”

Mishima leaned forward and shouted. “What do you know?”

Ryuji stood now. He came across as more intimidating, but he remained calm. “What do I know about Kamoshida? Are you kidding me?”

“I’m not. You have… no idea…”

“Mishima.” Ren tried to calm him down, but Mishima was too far gone.

“He’s a horrible person! Everything he put me through… it… it…” The flashbacks came flooding back quickly. He held onto his head and shook his body violently, trying to fight back against them. “He… He wouldn’t stop. I’d ask him to stop. BEG him to. He wouldn’t!”

Mishima knocked his body against the wall and fell to the ground. He managed to sit up with heaving breaths. “I had to put a stop to it. I had to make him stop somehow! There was no other way…”

Ren, Ann, and Ryuji collectively took steps away from Mishima, realizing that trying to comfort him in his current state would be useless.

“If I didn’t kill him, it would’ve kept happening! He would’ve… It would’ve gotten worse!” Mishima started gasping for air as he spoke. The words spilled out of him as if finally saying these things was the only thing that could keep him alive. “I… I couldn’t keep living in fear. I was so afraid. Every single day. But now I’m no better than him!”

Ryuji stomped his foot. “Stop saying that shit, man! That’s not true.”

“It is!”

Ryuji went over to Mishima and knelt down close. “Hey! It’s not!”

“Don’t yell at him.” Ren spoke up calmly.

“He’s gotta know it’s not true!”

“Not now. Just… let him be. I’ll stay with him.”

Ann frowned. “Are you sure?”

Ren nodded. “Take Morgana and wait for us downstairs. We’ll be down soon.”

Ryuji stepped away from Mishima. “You sure you know how to handle… this?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay.” Ryuji took Ren’s bag with Morgana, and he and Ann left the roof.

Ren sat down a few feet away from Mishima, looking over at his friend, now curled up on the ground. Ren simply waited for the waves to pass. Mishima stopped speaking, but he still let out grunts and sighs every once in a while. He hugged himself tight and tried to breathe through the memories that were berating his brain.

The waves stopped crashing violently and slowly turned into soft laps. Mishima’s breath became steadier and he lifted himself up off the ground enough to see Ren sitting across from him.

“Ah… Ren? When…?”

“I just had to make sure you were safe.” Ren scooted a little closer to Mishima. “How are you feeling?”

“My… head…”

“I know.” Ren looked at Mishima and smiled, but Mishima was not looking back at him. “You don’t have to be embarrassed or anything right now. I get it.”

Mishima nodded. “Okay.”

“You up to talk? I just have something I’ve been meaning to say to you for a long time now.”

“Yeah?” A different kind of anxiety started to fill Mishima now.

“Let’s be a team.”

“A… what?”

“Listen, you’re not worse than Kamoshida. Not at all. You’re better than any of us. You put a stop to his reign of inciting fear and inflicting pain onto all of his students. You did stand up to him, and that makes you strong.”

“What? Me?”

Ren nodded. “I know you feel guilty, but I think you can atone for all of that if we work together. I think there’s a lot we can do to keep anyone else from suffering like this.”

Mishima hurriedly tried lifting himself up to standing on his shaky legs. He leaned against the wall to keep from falling. “Y-You want me to… help you kill more people?”

“What? No! I—”

“No. Forget it. I can’t.”

“Mishima, I’m not saying that, I’m just saying—”

Mishima turned and opened the door behind him. “I can’t be here right now. I’m… I’m sorry.” He walked out and slammed the door on Ren, who sat alone on the roof.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was a shorter chapter, but the next update is when the new stuff starts! These last three chapters were the rewrites of the original version, but starting with chapter four you will see new never before seen on ao3 content! Thanks so much for reading so far!


	4. Hurricane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I'm the violence in the pouring rain_
> 
> _Come and fade me_
> 
> _Come and fade me_
> 
> _I'm a hurricane”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: physical abuse

Standing before Mishima was the door to the PE faculty office. He stood there for a few moments, unmoving. He could hear an occasional grunt or sigh coming from the other side of the door. The sounds caused his stomach to sink and his hands to sweat. Still, he took a deep breath before he placed a damp hand on the door and opened it. 

“M-Mr. Kamoshida?” Mishima’s voice was timid and small.

Kamoshida turned in his chair to face him. “Mishima.”

“Yes, sir? Y-You wanted to see me…”

Kamoshida laughed loudly, causing Mishima to wince. “Mishima. What the hell was with that performance today?” Kamoshida did not get a response. Mishima was staring hard at the ground, completely silent and despondent. Even as Kamoshida got out of his chair to approach Mishima, he stayed still. “Answer me, damn it!”

The increase in volume made Mishima recoil, and he shut his eyes hard as he squeezed out a pathetic response. “I’m s-sorry, s-sir! I did my best!”

_ Smack. _

Once the back of Kamoshida’s hand made heavy contact with Mishima’s cheek, he stepped backwards until he had run into the door behind him. He felt completely cornered and heat rushed to the spot where Kamoshida had hit him. Tears instantly began to form in his eyes, which he furiously tried to blink away and hold back.

“Pitiful.” He returned to his seat and watched as Mishima tried and failed to stay strong. “You can’t even handle one little hit, huh?” He chuckled. “You’d think you’d at least be better at dodging by now, right? At least put up a bit of fight, why don’t you?”

Mishima leaned his back against the door, knees giving into the weight of his body. He slid down until he was on the floor. 

“This is pathetic.” 

There was a volleyball tucked in between the copier and the office mini fridge that grasped Kamoshida’s attention. He moved towards it and picked it up, effortlessly tossing it back and forth from his left hand to his right hand. 

“Catch.” He commanded at Mishima as he hurled the ball towards him.

Mishima reflexively put his hands up to cover his face and fumbled while trying to catch the ball. It rolled slightly away from him, and he clumsily attempted to retrieve it. He clung the ball close to his chest and looked at Kamoshida, a little puzzled as to why he was told to hold on to a volleyball. He awaited whatever instructions he was about to be given by his coach.

Kamoshida stood up, towering over Mishima. He opened his arms out wide and puffed his chest out. “Give me your best shot.”

“H-Huh?”

“You heard me. I’m letting you get a shot in. I wanna see how tough you can be.”

Mishima’s fingers dug into the white leather of the ball. Seeing Kamoshida acting so vulnerable and willing to be harmed was an unusual sight. His cocky attitude and smug expression, however, more than compensated for the compromised position he was in.

“What are you waiting for?”

It felt like a trap. He knew the second he threw the ball at Kamoshida, somehow things would escalate into an even bigger nightmare. After all, Ryuji’s life was ruined after he stood up to Kamoshida. Although, he also felt that if he didn’t follow Kamoshida’s orders, then he would have to suffer for it. Mishima elected to close his eyes and pray for everything to stop.

Kamoshida started to grow impatient. Usually, getting to release his anger and aggression on his own students was enough to satisfy him, but Mishima’s inability to play along with his games made him get even more upset. He decided to push Mishima’s buttons a bit.

“You’re not going to do anything are you? You two really are the same, huh? She’s just as pathetic.”

Mishima reluctantly looked up. “Wh-Who?”

“Oh, I forget her name. The girl who wants to make the starting team, but has absolutely no talent to do so. What was it again? Sato? Suzuki?”

“Suzui.” Mishima’s voice became deeper and angrier.

“Ah, yes! That’s it. Suzui. How sad. She wants to be a starter, but the only way that will ever happen is if she were to give me a nice—”

Instantly, the volleyball flew through the air and thudded against Kamoshida’s chest. 

Kamoshida did not react to the blow. He looked at Mishima, who was attempting to stand back up again. 

“I hate you.” Mishima mumbled under his breath, trying to gain any strength he may have had inside him. “You’re a horrible,  _ horrible _ human being. You treat people like they’re nothing. All you care about is stepping on others so that you can be on top. It’s disgusting. I wish you were dead!” The words tumbled out of Mishima’s mouth and he glared at Kamoshida, who still did not give any reaction.

Quickly, things began to get blurry and hazy. There was a flash of Kamoshida’s eyes rolling back, and some sort of black substance began spilling over his eyelids. There were sounds of choking and gasping for air, and then a loud thud. Suddenly, Kamoshida was on the ground.

Fear rapidly filled Mishima’s whole body and he couldn’t stop himself from screaming. 

“S-Someone! A-Anyone! Please, help! Help!” He rushed over to the still body and knelt down next to it. “S-Sir? Mr. Kamoshida? Mr. Kamoshida!” 

Everything started to get even more blurry. He heard the door open and he felt the presence of adults entering the room. Multiple voices began speaking all at once, creating an unpleasant cacophony of sound. All the voices were asking questions and demanding answers. The voices kept getting louder and louder until—

Mishima bolted upright and immediately pressed his hands against his forehead and neck, trying to ground himself back in reality. He found himself in his dark bedroom, lying in bed. He scrambled for his phone which was laying on his nightstand and once he managed to locate it, he unlocked it. The bright light from his screen stung his eyes, causing him to squint to see what notifications he had.

**Ren:** Mishima? Are you awake?

Mishima checked the clock on his phone and saw that it was just barely 3 AM, and that the text from Ren had only been sent about an hour prior. He figured Ren might be having trouble sleeping as well, and he could still be up if that was the case.

**Yuuki:** I am now.

**Ren:** Did I wake you?

**Yuuki:** No, I had a nightmare.

**Ren:** Are you okay?

**Yuuki:** Fine.

**Yuuki:** Did you need something?

**Ren:** We need to talk.

**Yuuki:** We already talked. I don’t really want to talk to you about what you want to talk about.

**Ren:** I didn’t explain myself right.

**Yuuki:** I need time. And space.

**Ren:** Well once you’ve had your time and space, come to Leblanc.

**Yuuki:** Okay.

**Ren:** Okay.

Mishima felt irritated and he didn’t really know why. He wanted to just chalk it up to his nightmare putting him on edge, but he was used to having nightmares. When Kamoshida was abusing him, he had nightmares almost every time he went to sleep. Maybe it was because things were different this time around. Instead of being the victim, he was the one doing the harm to somebody else. Was it guilt then? He was feeling guilty ever since he took the shot at Kamoshida. Admittedly, he didn’t want to feel that way, but he couldn’t help it. Mishima felt his eyelids start to get heavy and he set his phone back down on his nightstand and let himself drift back to sleep.

A few hours later, Mishima was awoken by the alarm on his phone. He turned it off and lied in bed for a moment, just staring at the ceiling. There was nothing in particular to pay attention to, so he let his eyes abandon their focus as his mind wandered. He considered just lying there for the rest of the day. It was a day off, so it’s not like he had to be at school or anything, and if he did go anywhere, he felt like he’d only be a burden. The only person who wanted to see him was Ren.

Ren…

The image of his friend flashed in his mind. Thinking of Ren was too hard for him to process, and another wave of guilt washed over him. He couldn’t get Ren’s kind eyes and sympathetic smile out of his head. All he could feel when thinking about him was unbearable worthlessness. How could he not? Mishima did what he felt was the worst thing a person could do, and still Ren was beside him, riding out his panic attacks with him. He felt disgusted with himself and unworthy of that level of caring.

His phone buzzed, but Mishima waited a few minutes before looking at it. He wasn’t in any hurry to talk to anyone. When he finally did look, it was just a text from Ren saying that he’d be working at Leblanc all day. He started to feel sick as he thought about facing him. Whenever they crossed paths at school, he did his best to avoid eye contact. During class, he always made sure to face forward or out the window opposite of Ren’s desk. Admittedly, it was tiresome to keep ignoring someone he saw so much every day, and the thought that going to see Ren could get him some closure crossed his mind. At least it couldn’t hurt.

Mishima managed enough energy to send Ren a quick text back telling him to expect him in a few hours. He got out of bed and got dressed to head to Yongen-Jaya.

On the train ride to Yongen, Mishima stood cramped against several other strangers who kept pushing and knocking into him. Usually the rides weren’t so bad, and he was used to all the congestion having lived in Tokyo his whole life, but he still felt shaken up and he was anxious about meeting up with Ren. The only reason he even considered going was so he could say his own piece and move on, but he then remembered that Ren wanted to talk to him first and he probably had plenty of things on his mind that he wanted to say. 

As his mind filled with worry, he almost missed the train announcer declaring that they had arrived at his stop. He squeezed past all the travelers and made it out of the station. Navigating the backstreets was relatively easy, and he found himself in front of Leblanc. He looked through the window and saw Ren, who seemed invested in a television program. Knowing that he hadn’t been seen yet, he considered just bailing on the whole thing and heading back home. Before he could, a patron walked out the door and the bell sounded, now alerting Ren of Mishima’s presence.

“Shit.” Mishima muttered under his breath, immediately averting his eyes away from the boy behind the counter.

“Mishima?” Ren leaned over and called out as the exiting patron held the door open for Mishima to enter.

“You goin’ in or what?” The impatient man asked Mishima.

“Y-Yeah. Sorry. Thanks.” Mishima stepped inside and reluctantly sat down at the bar.

Ren looked at him expectantly. He was waiting for Mishima to say something. Anything. He didn’t, though. He was just leaning on the counter, resting his head in his hand and looking at all the coffee beans against the back wall.

“Arabica.”

Ren’s voice brought Mishima out of his haze and he looked at him. “Huh?”

“Arabica beans? The ones you’re staring at.”

“Oh.” Mishima brought his arms close to his body and looked away.

Ren frowned. “Do you… like coffee? I can make you something. On the house.”

“On the house? Are you really allowed to do that?”

He laughed a little. “Okay, then. Not on the house. My treat.”

Mishima was able to manage a smile. “Thanks, but uh, I don’t really drink coffee.”

“Alright, then.”

Mishima started running his fingers back and forth across his other hand, completely avoiding eye contact. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Ren was cleaning the counter, or grinding coffee beans, or something. Mishima wasn’t really paying attention and there wasn’t anyone else in the café at the time who Ren needed to focus on serving. 

God, Ren sure was stubborn. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Mishima already had so much to deal with, he didn’t really want to be the one bearing all of the emotional labor of the conversation. He let out an exasperated sigh. “So, why did you want me to come over?”

“I just wanted to talk.”

Mishima scoffed. “Then why don’t you talk?”

Ren set down a mug that he was cleaning. “I wanted to make sure you were ready. I’m not trying to force you into anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“I’m fine. Just say what you need to.”

“Okay…” Ren tried to look in Mishima’s eyes, but knew he wouldn’t be able to. He settled for looking down at his hands, which still seemed uncomfortably active. “So, I’ve been talking a lot with Ryuji and Ann. Morgana, too. We’re all really worried about you, and–”

“Don’t.”

Ren tilted his head. “Hm?”

“Don’t do that. Worry about me. I’m fine.”

“Oh.” Ren could tell he wasn’t going to get through to Mishima. Even though it had been a while since everything went down, Mishima was still clearly not okay. It seemed wrong and insensitive to just ignore Mishima, so he wanted to do his best to reach him. “Listen, Mishima, I  _ care _ about you. I know you have been through a lot. I don’t even know the extent to how much things have been affecting you. So, I don’t want to force you to do anything you don’t want to do. Just know it’s not wrong for you to feel things and it’s not wrong for you to talk about them, either.”

Mishima’s expression was unchanging. He really felt numb to everything now. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. Is that all you wanted to say to me?”

“No, not really. That was kind of just a preface.” Ren could tell that Mishima was antsy to leave, but if he didn’t say what he was about to, he knew he’d regret it. “I guess I’ll just come out with it. But can you promise me that you won’t run off again? Just hear me out?”

Mishima shrugged. “Sure.”

Ren didn’t feel totally assured, but the response was enough for him to continue. “Well. Okay. As I was saying earlier, I’ve been talking to everyone else about this whole situation. We think it’s important we stick with this. We were all given these powers for a reason, you know? It seems wrong to all of us to just waste it. Morgana, especially, thinks we have a shot at changing people’s hearts. There are a lot of corrupt adults out in the world. People even worse than Kamoshida.” Mishima visibly cringed at the mention of his abuser’s name. “Ah. Sorry.” Ren sighed. “You get what I’m saying though, right? We don’t want to just leave things like this. We can actually do some good and you can redeem yourself, too.”

“Redeem myself?” Ren stared at Mishima. He could tell he said something wrong. “So, am I corrupt, too?”

“What? No. Come on. That’s not what I was saying–”

“Then what were you saying?”

“You made a mistake. But that doesn’t define you, Yuuki.” A pause. “Mishima.”

Mishima got up and stepped away from the bar. “It wasn’t a mistake.”

“Mishima…”

“Was this all you wanted to say to me?”

Ren could feel Mishima pulling away, but Ren was not ready to let him leave. “No. I mean, what can I say? I want you to join us, Mishima. You’re strong, and brave, and powerful. We could use you and you really are a good person.”

“I’m not.”

“Stop saying that. Listen, we don’t blame you for what happened—”

Mishima let out a somewhat pathetic laugh. “You don’t know anything about me at all, Amamiya.” He looked at Ren now. “Did you ever wonder how everyone at school already knew you had a criminal record? How could all of those rumors spread about you so quickly? Who could’ve let that slip?”

Ren felt confused. He  _ had _ wondered that, but figured maybe someone at school knew someone from his hometown. God knows everyone back there couldn’t stop talking about the case. “What are you saying?”

“You’re not that dense.”

“Did you…? Why would you do that? How did you know about it?”

“It doesn’t matter now. But it was me. So, that’s the kind of person I am, okay?”

He didn’t feel satisfied with that answer at all, but Mishima was already starting to walk towards the door. “Mishima, wait! Stop this. This doesn’t make sense.”

“Does it have to make sense?”

“I…”

“Well, I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m declining your pity offer of working together. Have fun changing hearts, I guess.”

Ren rushed out from behind the bar to catch up to Mishima, who was starting to leave again. “ _ Mishima. _ ” Mishima sighed and turned around to look at Ren. 

Ren looked back at him for a moment. His expression seemed angry. Impatient. Sad. He knew he was looking at Mishima, but it didn’t seem like the Mishima he knew was the person looking back at him. It was difficult for him to really put his finger on what was different about him. The cuts and bruises he was used to seeing had definitely started to heal and fade, but that wasn’t what it was. Something about his eyes seemed different.

“What?”

“Nothing. Never mind. Sorry for wasting your time today.” Ren walked back behind the counter and resumed his work of mug cleaning while Mishima left without saying another word.

**x x x x x**

At school the next day, Ren noticed that Mishima was absent again. He was worried about him, but he knew that there was nothing he could do to get through to him. Ren did his best to just focus on the lectures. Still, the noticeably empty desk towards the front of the classroom was constantly in his field of vision. He decided to stare into his notebook for most of the classes and take thorough notes.

Once the last lesson ended, Ann turned in her desk to face Ren as she started packing up her books. “Are you ready to go?” Ann asked as Ren was slyly transferring Morgana from his desk cubby to his bag.

“I guess so.” Ren stayed seated at his desk.

Ann frowned. “You don’t sound very enthusiastic. You still worried about…?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. He doesn’t want us to worry about him, either, so we shouldn’t.”

Ren did his best to return the reassuring smile that Ann offered him. “Okay. You’re right. Thanks. Let’s get going, then.”

The two made their way out of the classroom and spotted Ryuji, leaning against the wall by the stairs. “Hey, man!” Ryuji took Ren’s hand and brought him in for a bro hug, then nodded at Ann. “Sup, Ann? You ready?”

She shrugged. “I’m honestly a little nervous. We’ve never successfully stolen a treasure, so…”

“We’ll be fine! Morgana posted Yusuke’s calling cards all over that Madarame dude’s exhibit. Everyone’s been talking about it, so he’s gotta be a little nervous. Right, Morgana?”

Morgana popped his head out of Ren’s bag. “Well. Hopefully.”

“The only reason Kamoshida’s treasure didn’t appear was because he didn’t see the calling card as a threat. But the press is going crazy over it, so that has to mean something!” Ryuji smiled wide. “Even if Madarame’s treasure doesn’t appear, we can just leave it alone, y’know? I don’t think any of us are gonna go all trigger happy on ‘im.” 

Ren let out a derisive laugh. “Yeah, true.”

“Sorry, dude. I was just sayin’.”

“It’s fine. You’re right.” Ren adjusted his glasses and smoothed down his shirt. “Let’s just meet up with Yusuke at the hideout.”

The others nodded in agreement as Ren led the way from Shujin to their hideout in Shibuya station. 

Yusuke Kitagawa was already waiting there for them to arrive. He seemed deeply lost in thought and an aggressive pat on the shoulder from Ryuji seemed to knock him back to reality.

Yusuke cleared his throat. “Hello.”

“You ready, dude?” Ryuji asked, a little concerned over how calm Yusuke seemed to be.

“More than ready, I believe.”

“If you say so. We know this Madarame guy put you through a lot, so…”

“I can assure you, I am nothing like this ex-teammate of yours. I won’t feel the need to end his life with my own hands.” Yusuke replied coolly.

Ann tried to change the subject. “We’ve gone over this topic plenty. I think it’s safe to say we all want the same thing. Let’s just change this guy’s heart!”

Morgana meowed excitedly. “You said it, Lady Ann! To the treasure!”

Yusuke turned to Ren. “You’re awfully quiet. Do you still want to go through with this?” Ren nodded. “Then, I am ready whenever you are, leader.”

Being called the “leader” of the group made Ren think about how unworthy he was of that title. Everyone in his team seemed so sure they were all about to do the right thing, and they looked to him for guidance. Ren didn’t know what was right or wrong, but he decided not to think about it too much. Whenever he did, he’d get overwhelmed with what he had gotten himself into. 

He looked at Yusuke. He seemed sad. That was the same look he saw in Mishima when they first met. Ren didn’t like seeing anyone look so hurt, so he told himself that if changing Madarame’s heart would make that pain go away, then he would do it.

“Let’s go,” Ren managed to say confidently, which elicited cheers and positive affirmation from his teammates. The Phantom Thieves were about to take their first treasure.


	5. Haunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Cause I've done some things that I can't speak_
> 
> _And I've tried to wash you away, but you just won't leave_
> 
> _So won't you take a breath and dive in deep?_
> 
> _Cause I came here so you'd come for me”_

Days later, Mishima was in his room and lying in his bed again. He hadn’t gotten out of bed much at all recently. There seemed to be very little reason for him to. Additionally, his recurring nightmares were preventing him from getting any decent amount of rest.

His phone buzzed and, after summoning his few bits of energy, he picked it up to look at the notification which read:  **“Breaking News Alert! Famous Japanese-Style Artist Ichiryusai Madarame Breaks His Silence! Press Conference Streaming NOW!”**

Mishima groaned. He half-expected the notification to be a text message from somebody, but after giving it some thought, he realized the possibility of that was more than slim. The only person he could think of that ever wanted to hear from him was Ren, and Mishima had done all he could to push Ren away from him. 

Aside from all of that, the news itself made Mishima feel sick. He had heard earlier in the week that someone named Madarame received a calling card from a group calling themselves the Phantom Thieves. Ren had told Mishima that everyone wanted to keep using their powers to steal hearts in the metaverse, but the reality of them actually all going through with that plan without him was a little bit too much for him to take.

Not having much else to do, Mishima decided to expose himself to something he knew would make him feel worse, and clicked through to the livestream of Madarame’s press conference.

The old man approached a podium with about a dozen microphones propped in front of him. Mishima caught himself cringing in anticipation of what was about to happen. Part of him was worried that he’d be witness to another horrific display of a mental shutdown. He shut his eyes in preparation for what might happen and listened to the voice on the stream.

Mishima knew little, if anything, about Madarame. He couldn’t think of a reason why Madarame would be the first official target of the Phantom Thieves. Although he could hear some explanation of his misdeeds, for the most part all he heard was loud sobbing, an incoherent apology, and a pathetic desire to atone. So, this is what would have happened to Kamoshida had Mishima not triggered a mental shutdown in him? Mishima tried to picture Kamoshida crying and admitting his sins and begging for forgiveness. He had to hold back a laugh because it was such an unbelievable image.

It all seemed pointless. Even if Kamoshida had a change of heart and started to cry uncontrollably and apologize for all he had done, would it have made a difference? There was no way to undo the harm that Kamoshida had done to him and countless others. No way to erase the pain he felt. Triggering a change of heart in Kamoshida wouldn’t be able to heal the wounds he had.

Pity began to take over Mishima’s emotions, and he exited out of the livestream that he had already zoned out on. While browsing apps on his phone in an attempt to distract himself from his thoughts, he noticed the nav app on his phone again. Every day it would appear on his phone, and every day he would delete it. Thinking about the metaverse was too much sometimes, and he felt like he should put everything behind him. He sighed and began to drag the icon to the trash bin, but stopped himself midway.

Suddenly, an idea popped in his head and he left the nav app on his phone. After a moment of struggling to gain more energy to get out of his bed, he eventually made his way over to his desk and turned on his computer. He instantly straightened up and searched for hacking software.

Mishima spent the entire night researching and learning about hacking, managing only about twenty minutes of sleep before he had to start getting ready for school. He had already missed too many days this semester and couldn’t afford to miss much more. The adrenaline he felt now from working on a new goal was able to motivate him enough to actually follow through on his responsibilities.

However, as soon as Mishima left his house, he began to regret it. As he started to head to Shujin, all he could hear was gossip about the Phantom Thieves. Just the name alone was enough to make his stomach turn. Before long, he decided to put in his earbuds and listen to music to drown out all the chatter around him.

“Mishima!” A sweet voice called out once Mishima arrived at Shujin.

Mishima took out one earbud and looked around to confirm if someone really was calling for him. He spotted Shiho approaching him with a kind smile. Mishima couldn’t help but smile as well as he took out his other earbud and started to put them away. “Hey, Suzui.”

“You’re back!”

“Ha. Yeah.” Mishima looked down at his shoes. “I was, uh… sick.”

Shiho moped. “So sick that you had to miss school for a whole week?”

“Yeah, I guess it was the flu or something.”

“Yuuki.” 

Shiho’s voice was soft and comforting, and it surprised Mishima to hear someone actually say his first name. No one ever really did. He sighed. “Fine, okay. I wasn’t physically ill, I guess…”

“It’s okay.” Shiho looked away from Mishima. “I’ve been having a hard time, too.”

“I know… I’m… I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Likewise.” She held her hand out towards Mishima and gave him a look asking for permission to touch. Mishima nodded and she took his hand and squeezed it lightly. “I just want you to know I’m here for you.” 

Her touch and her words were so comforting. It was more comfort than Mishima felt he deserved. Shiho had been through so much and was probably trying her best to put on a brave face so people wouldn’t worry about her. Mishima thought it was noble, but also thought that maybe it would be exhausting to keep up a charade like that for so long.

Suddenly, Shiho’s eyes lit up. “Hey! Are you free during lunch? Ann told me she has some business to take care of, so I’m totally free today! We could have lunch on the roof!”

“The… roof?”

“Or wherever. It doesn’t really matter. We can just talk and catch up. I could really use someone who gets it, and… I think you could, too.”

Mishima smiled, albeit sadly. “Yeah. That sounds nice. Let’s do it.”

“Okay!” Shiho giggled. “I’ll see you at lunch, then! I better head to class. You make sure you study hard and take notes during your morning lectures, okay?”

“No promises.”

She rolled her eyes playfully and patted Mishima’s arm before taking off to head to her own classroom.

Mishima was instantly in higher spirits after his short interaction with Shiho. That feeling was quickly dampened when he walked into his own classroom, only to be greeted with Ren and Ann seated at their desks on the other side of the room. They were talking to each other and looking down at their phones, but Mishima didn’t know what they were saying. He sat down at his desk and opened up his notebook, praying for the lectures to start soon so they could end.

He was sitting in a classroom full of people who didn’t care about him. The air felt oppressive and he found himself longing for the lunch break so he could be around someone who wasn’t either annoyed by him or felt pity for him. He craved the refreshing change of pace whenever he got to talk to Shiho.

Finally, it was time for lunch and Mishima got a text on his phone from Shiho.

**Shiho:** Hey Yuuki! I’m headed to the roof if you want to meet me there?

**Yuuki:** Hi Shiho. The roof sounds good! Be there in a minute!

**Yuuki:** Is it okay if I call you Shiho?

**Shiho:** Of course :)

Mishima smiled and tucked his phone away as he gathered the rest of his belongings. He glanced over at Ren, who seemed engrossed in a conversation with Ann. Mishima knew that if he wanted to accomplish what he was setting out to do, he had to figure out a way to acquire Ren’s phone. He took a deep breath to gather some courage, and approached the pair.

“Um.” Mishima began.

Ren and Ann looked over at him. Ren was silent as Ann smiled awkwardly. “Hey.”

“Takamaki. Amamiya…”

“Do you… need something?” Ann seemed slightly annoyed with Mishima, which was fair.

“I was just… um…” He turned to Ren. “Amamiya, could I borrow your phone for a second?”

Ann stood up and faced Mishima. “Why?” She sounded defensive. Again, fair.

“My phone just died. I need to text my mom something.”

“What do you need to tell her? I can just text her for you.”

Ann was making him more nervous than he already was. “I… It’s… It’s private.”

“It can’t wait until you get home?”

Ren spoke up. “It’s okay, Ann.” He handed his phone to Mishima. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Mishima smiled.

Cell phone acquired. All that was left now was to download a spying app that would allow Mishima to see Ren’s activity and texts remotely. His fingers were working as fast as possible. Although Ann was eyeing him pretty intensely, he was able to hide the screen from her. Within seconds, the app was downloaded and hidden. He double checked that Ren would not be able to find any trace that he had been there, and promptly handed the phone back.

“Thanks again.”

Ren did his best to return a smile. “No problem. Are you expecting a text back, or…?”

He shook his head. “No, no. I just had to, uh, let her know something. You’re good.” The awkward air between everyone was too much for Mishima to stand any longer and he started walking back to head out of the classroom. “Well, I better go. See you around.”

“See you.” Ren replied sadly as Mishima turned his back to him. Ann set a reassuring hand on Ren’s shoulder.

Mishima then rushed out of the classroom and headed to the roof. Shiho was sitting at one of the discarded student desks waiting for Mishima to arrive.

“Hi.” Mishima hugged his bag to his chest and sat at a desk adjacent to Shiho. One of the chair legs was broken and buckled as Mishima put his weight on it. “Whoa!” The seat was no longer level and Mishima was nearly falling off of it.

Shiho giggled. “Are you okay?”

He tried to laugh it off. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine. I can just stand.”

“You don’t have to. I brought a blanket, we can just sit together on the floor.”

“O-Okay.”

Mishima set his bag down and helped Shiho unravel the blanket and set it down. They smoothed it out together and placed their textbooks on the corners of the blanket to keep it from blowing away. They sat across from each other and took out their respective lunches. Shiho had an onigiri bento box, complete with tiny sausages cut up to look like little octopi. Mishima looked slightly sad as he pulled out his instant noodles. He snapped his chopsticks apart and used one to point at one of Shiho’s rice balls with nori on it arranged to make a panda face.

“That’s a nice touch.” Mishima commented. “Do your parents make lunch for you still?”

Shiho shook her head. “Uh-uh. I do this myself every morning.”

“Oh. Sorry. I just thought that you probably wouldn’t have time to do something like that in the morning.”

“I guess it does take some extra time, but it’s really relaxing. Cooking puts me at ease, usually. Plus, it helps me look forward to something during the morning!”

Mishima smiled. “Yeah, that seems like a win-win situation, then. I’d do that too, but I’m not really good at that sort of thing.”

“It’s a lot easier than it looks. I can teach you! Before you know it, you’ll be a pro!”

“Ha. Thanks.”

Shiho let out another small giggle. Her laugh was infectious and caused Mishima to laugh a little as well. “It’s nice to see you happy.” Shiho remarked.

“Hm?”

“I don’t get to see you laugh or smile that often. It’s nice. Your eyes light up.”

Suddenly, Mishima’s face felt flushed and he stared down at the fabrics on the pink blanket underneath them. “Th-Thanks. Y-Yours do, too…”

Shiho blushed as well. “Thank you.”

The two ate and sat silently together for a large portion of the break. The silence wasn’t awkward, though. They just enjoyed each other’s company as they sat together, both looking at the trees in the distance that were blowing in the wind.

After a while, Shiho broke the silence. “You know… it’s nice to be with someone who understands.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…”Getting the next few words out seemed to be somewhat of a struggle for Shiho. “Coach Kamoshida and his special coaching sessions.”

Memories of the “special coaching sessions” quickly flashed across Mishima’s mind and he found himself shutting his eyes tight to stop it. “Yeah…” 

Shiho looked forward as if staring at the distant landscape would keep her from being pulled into her own dark memories. She spoke softly yet sternly. “Sometimes it feels like no one understands. Even though everyone on the volleyball team was subjected to his abuse. Even Ann was.”

“Sakamoto-kun, too.” Mishima piped up without realizing or even intending to.

“Mm-hm. Him, too.” Shiho’s voice started to sound sad. “Everyone in the school even knew about the abuse. But ever since Kamoshida…” A beat. Shiho couldn’t get herself to confront the words, and she turned to Mishima to try to gain some strength to continue. “Ever since then, it’s like everyone has just forgotten about all of that. It’s weird that no one talks about it, you know? Even when they do talk about him, it’s all praise and condolences.”

Mishima nodded. “I know… He… doesn’t deserve that.”

Shiho didn’t agree or disagree. “It feels strange… When someone you hate dies… Are you supposed to be happy when a life ends? I don’t want to mourn someone like him.” She sighed. “They say grief is a universal language. Everyone loses a loved one at some point in their life. In a way, death sort of connects us all.”

Thinking about death like that never really occurred to Mishima, but it sounded true enough. “I guess so.” Mishima’s tone came off a little dismissive without him meaning to. He instantly felt regret, but Shiho didn’t seem to pay much mind to it.

“There’s probably a million books on how to deal with the grief over losing a loved one. They tell you that when someone dies, that doesn’t mean they’re gone. They’ll always be with you…” Mishima nodded as he realized where Shiho was going with this line of thought. “What if you despised the person who died? Are they always with you, too? Or do you think they can sense your hatred and just… leave you alone?”

“Maybe.” Mishima tried to sound supportive. He wasn’t sure he believed in anything like souls or people staying around after their death.

“Probably not. I fear that he will always be with me. Even in his death, I still can’t get away from him.”

The air felt heavy and Shiho was trying to gather the courage to say what was on her mind. Her breath became shaky and tears began to form in her eyes. Mishima could tell she had to get something off her chest, and decided to be patient until she felt strong enough to do so.

For a brief second, Shiho felt her apprehension dissipate and she spoke up. “I killed him.” She put her head in her hands to hide her face as she began to sob.

“You… what?” Mishima was stunned. He knew for a fact that  _ that _ wasn’t true. Mishima definitely pulled the trigger in the metaverse, and Kamoshida definitely suffered a mental shutdown. Unless that was all a coincidence?

Shiho’s sobs increased in volume and broke Mishima away from his thinking. He scooted closer to her and set his hand down in front of her. “Hey.” He said as softly as he possibly could.

It took a moment for Shiho’s breathing to go from choked cries to a more even pattern. Through her misty eyes, she could see the hand that Mishima offered and she took it in hers. She squeezed it hard and tried to keep herself from letting out embarrassing crying-induced hiccups.

“What do you mean you killed him? He… had a stroke, didn’t he? That’s what the principal said. You couldn’t have been responsible for that.”

She shook her head, frustrated. “I  _ willed  _ it.” That statement confused Mishima even more and Shiho could tell that she needed to elaborate. She then attempted to do so while occasionally stopping to catch her breath. “The last time I was called out by Coach Kamoshida… I felt so helpless. I felt scared. Hurt. It was too much, and I couldn’t take it anymore!” Accessing the memory started to become difficult, but she powered through. “He wouldn’t stop. No matter how much I cried or… begged. At one point, after it was over… he just… knocked me against the wall and I started to lose consciousness. All I could hear was his awful laugh… It was so loud, and it made me feel sick. I saw the disgusting look on his face, and then before I passed out… I prayed.”

“What did you pray for?”

“I prayed that… he’d die.” Shiho squeezed Mishima’s hand again. “It’s my fault…” She couldn’t stop herself from crying more.

“Hey… Shiho. It’s not your fault.” The statement didn’t seem to comfort her at all, and Mishima felt unequipped to handle his only friend’s emotions. He wanted to just tell her everything. She wasn’t responsible for Kamoshida’s death. Mishima was. Shiho might end up hating him if he told her that, but if it meant Shiho could place the blame on him instead of herself, then it would be worth it.

He tried to gather his thoughts to explain everything, but he didn’t know where to begin without sounding ridiculous. It must have taken him a little too long to do so because Shiho let go of his hand and started to put her lunch away.

“Thank you, Yuuki.” She sniffled and tried to keep any more tears from coming. “I’m sorry for being such a downer…”

“N-No. Not at all.” Mishima began to collect his belongings. “You can always talk to me, okay?”

Shiho couldn’t help but smile. “Okay.”

“Um… Shiho?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think… If Kamoshida didn’t die… Say he was still around and just miraculously woke up one day feeling guilty and decided he’d confess his sins and turn himself in… Do you think it would be easier to get closure and heal?”

Shiho thought for a second. “I can’t imagine him ever doing that.”

“Hypothetically, though. If he did.”

“Hm.” The hypothetical situation still seemed too outrageous for Shiho to even fathom, but she decided to humor Mishima. “Probably not. I think it’s more complicated than that. Seeing the person who hurt you suffer? It doesn’t change what they did to you in the past.”

“Yeah… I think so, too.” Mishima frowned. “I wish our lunch break was longer…” He felt like things were unresolved, and he couldn’t fully comfort Shiho the way he wanted to. She opened up to him and was so vulnerable. That couldn’t have been easy for her, and the payoff for doing so left much to be desired.

“Me too.” The expression on Mishima’s face told Shiho that he wasn’t happy with how they were leaving things. “It’s okay, though. We could always have lunch up here tomorrow?” She posed the question with high hopes of a positive response, but after reflecting on how the last half hour had gone from her perspective, she decided to hedge. “If… you wanted.”

“I want to!” He blurted out enthusiastically. 

The idea of spending another hour with just Shiho gave him something to look forward to. Being around her felt easy. Whenever he spent time with someone like Ren, he just felt like he was being looked down on. It didn’t feel that way with Shiho. 

“I’ll try to make a bento box like yours tomorrow morning!” He did his best to bring a playful energy between them again. “You can grade me and that will be what we measure my progress against.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Shiho laughed while wiping away her remaining tears. She then picked up the textbooks that were holding down the blanket.

After she had done so, Mishima helped her fold the blanket back up, each grabbing a respective end and meeting in the middle for each fold. Once they met together for the final fold, their hands brushed against one another and they both flinched back.

Mishima laughed nervously and silently hoped his blushing wasn’t very noticeable. Not very likely considering how hot his cheeks felt. “S-Sorry.”

“It’s okay!” Shiho smiled as she looked down to hide her own blushing.

“I-I can walk you to class. If you’re ready?”

She nodded. “Mm-hm. I’m ready now.”

Mishima wanted more than anything to hold her hand again as he escorted her to her classroom, but after remembering how easily rumors could spread at Shujin, he thought better of it. A boy and a girl holding hands in the hallway was like asking for gossip to circulate around you. Shiho didn’t need that right now. Instead, he put his hands out and offered to carry Shiho’s books. She passed her books to him and the pair left the rooftop.


	6. Gasoline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Are you deranged like me? Are you strange like me?_
> 
> _Lighting matches just to swallow up the flame like me?_
> 
> _Do you call yourself a fucking hurricane like me?_
> 
> _Pointing fingers cause you'll never take the blame like me?”_

Once Mishima came home after school, he headed straight to his room and immediately used his phone to spy on Ren’s own. Thanks to the app he downloaded, he had complete access to everything on Ren’s phone and he wouldn’t even be notified or aware of it.

He saw all of the apps neatly organized on the home screen. It was mostly standard stuff that came pre-installed on all smartphones. Among them was the metanav. Mishima hovered over the icon, feeling a twinge of guilt in his stomach. He knew it was wrong to invade Ren’s privacy, but what did it matter? He had to.

Before he could change his mind, he clicked on the app. He pulled up the search history and examined it. 

There were several entries over the last few weeks which read:  _ “Madarame, shack, museum.” _

It was definitely them. Mishima never doubted that Ren and the others were the ones behind the successful change of heart, but now there was definitely no denying it.

What did surprise Mishima was the multiple entries that simply read:  _ “Mementos.” _

He squinted. What does Mementos mean? It couldn’t be a palace. There was no name or distortion, or even location as far as he could tell. To investigate further, he went into Ren’s chat logs and pulled up the group chat he had with Ryuji, Ann, and someone named Yusuke, who Mishima did not recognize. He scrolled up to the top and began reading.

**Ryuji:** Alright! Yusuke! You’re officially in the group chat! No backing out now.

**Ann:** Yes! Welcome to the Phantom Thieves, Yusuke!

**Yusuke:** Thank you for the warm welcome.

**Ann:** No problem.

**Ren:** Glad you’re part of the team.

**Yusuke:** I look forward to working with this delightful company.

**Ryuji:** I’ve got a great feeling about this. We’re gonna steal that Madarame bastard’s heart!

**Ann:** Yeah!

**Ryuji:** Okay, leader, you just let us know when you wanna head to the palace.

**Ren:** Will do.

Seeing his ex-teammates so excited to work together and welcome a stranger with such kindness made him feel left out and sad. Looking at these conversations felt self-destructive, but he wanted to get to the bottom of the meaning of Mementos. He searched it as a keyword in the group chat.

**Ryuji:** We goin’ to the palace or Mementos today?

**Yusuke:** Stealing the treasure is a more pressing matter, is it not?

**Ryuji:** Well yeah, but those Shadows are tough! If we go to Mementos, we can get stronger.

**Yusuke:** I suppose.

**Ann:** Do we have any targets though?

**Ren:** Morgana says we need a name.

**Ryuji:** Ugh! That’s bullshit. How’re we gonna figure out anything like that?

**Yusuke:** A Phantom Thief should have a high level of expertise in the skill of gathering intel.

**Yusuke:** I feel as though we are lacking in that department.

**Ann:** That doesn’t matter! I’m sure we’ll find a target there eventually.

**Ann:** There must be a ton of people we know who have shadows there.

**Ryuji:** Why don’t we see if Mishima has one?

**Ren:** Ryuji.

**Ryuji:** Sorry, sorry.

**Ryuji:** Sore subject, I get it.

**Yusuke:** Why don’t we focus on the treasure for the time being? The exhibit is opening in a few days.

**Ryuji:** Alright. Whatever. We got bigger fish to fry, anyway!

**Ren:** Let’s go to the palace tomorrow.

**Ryuji:** Sounds good, man.

**Ann:** Yup! Sounds great!

**Yusuke:** Indeed.

Mishima exited out of Ren’s phone and sat silently for a moment to process what he just read. He made the decision to ignore Ryuji’s comment about him and focus on Mementos. Apparently if he had someone’s name, he could target them in some place called Mementos?

The gears in his brain rapidly began turning and an idea dawned on him. He hurried over to his computer and pulled up a coding program.

For the next few days, Mishima was hardly getting any sleep. He’d go to school, come home, and work on his new website all night, every night. By the end of the week, it was finally in a spot where he felt he could launch the site and start advertising it. 

When Kamoshida ordered Mishima to spread rumors about a new transfer student to Shujin, he made an anonymous post on a dark, underground website. He pulled the same website up, figuring it would be the best way to spread the information.

He decided he’d draft a message that could circulate around the internet and hopefully bring traffic to his site. The message had to be interesting and catch people’s attention. He created a new post which read:

_ Citizens of Tokyo _

_ You have no doubt heard of a group calling themselves the Phantom Thieves. They claim to steal people’s hearts and force them to confess to their crimes. They have special methods that allow them to do this and bend the will of the people to their liking. The Phantom Thieves are not the only people with access to these methods, however. _

_ The Virtual Vigilante Website has been created to fulfill the wishes of victims with no way out. We are an organization in direct opposition of the Phantom Thieves. We are assassins of evil. We are real justice. _

_ Give us the name of someone you want to be punished and we will take care of the rest. _

_ -Umbra _

Mishima read the message over and over again, reluctant to publish it to the internet. As he had been working on the website the past week, he’d occasionally feel the impulse to stop his plan before anyone could know what he wanted to do. At times it felt like he was fighting against his morals.

For a moment, he pictured a world where he had successfully changed Kamoshida’s heart and joined the Phantom Thieves in their pursuits. Would that have been a better world? There was no way for him to know, and there was no point in even entertaining the possibility. That’s not what happened. That’s not who he was. Not now. Not anymore.

Being granted his powers and access to the metaverse had to mean something. This must be his purpose. He could feel it.

He tried his best to convince himself that he was making the right choice and following the right path. Then, before he could talk himself out of it, he published the message.

To keep himself from spiraling into an anxiety attack over the responses he might hear from his post, he moved away from his desktop and got dressed to head out and take a walk. Getting away from everything for a moment would probably be good for him. He grabbed his bag and opened the front door.

“Mom, Dad! I’m going for a walk, I’ll be back later!” No response as usual. Mishima shrugged it off and walked outside.

Summertime was fast approaching and although it was hot out, the occasional welcome breeze felt comforting. Taking in the last few days of spring would be nice before the brutal July heat came. 

Mishima didn’t have any particular destination in mind as he walked, and thought he’d just let his subconscious determine where he’d go.

He wandered around for a while until he passed by the train station. Once he took the steps to get below ground, he approached a subway map of the Tokyo metro attached to the wall. The sprawling multicolored lines always overwhelmed him. Generally, he’d get familiar with one line and confine his travel to those stops. Today, however, he was looking for a change. He squinted his eyes looking at the map and tried to see if there was any place that sounded exciting. Surely, he looked like a tourist to anyone passing by, but most people were too busy and didn’t pay him any mind.

Shinjuku caught his eye at first and it definitely sounded exciting, but it wasn’t far enough away. Jinbocho and Akihabara sounded nice as well, but Mishima was always overhearing classmates talking to their friends about going there. He didn’t want to run into anybody he knew. The furthest major station from the Shibuya one he was currently in, looked to be Ueno. Thankfully, he could take the Ginza line all the way there and didn’t have to make any transfers. Ueno didn’t seem to be a popular destination among Shujin students, and it was probably too far for Ren to go.

There was a display of travel brochures beside the map Mishima was looking at. He quickly scanned the display for a Ueno one he could take. After he had done so, he caught the next train traveling to his destination.

The ride was about half an hour long and all the seats were taken, but Mishima was just glad that it wasn’t too crowded. To pass the time, he browsed through the brochure he picked up. Ueno was home to a popular park and zoo, and there were many famous temples throughout the district. Perhaps what it was most famous for was its museums. Suddenly, Mishima felt anxious.

One of the museums in the brochure boasted that they held exhibits for many famous artists, one of those famous artists being Ichiryusai Madarame. This must’ve been an old brochure.

The anxiety Mishima was feeling only intensified. He tried telling himself that the Phantom Thieves had completed their goal involving Madarame, and most likely wouldn’t be hanging around a museum with one of his exhibits. That wasn’t exactly his main concern, though. People there would probably be talking about the Phantom Thieves and that was the last thing he wanted to hear about.

Maybe he’d just stop by the park.

He arrived at the Ueno stop and hesitated before stepping off the train. Part of him thought he should catch the next train back to Shibuya and call it a day. It felt wrong to him, though. Cowardly. He repeatedly told himself that he was not a coward. Not anymore, at least. With a quick, deep breath, he hopped off the train and wandered around until he arrived at the nearest museum.

For the most part, things were calm. Most of the guests at the museum were silently appreciating the art. Figures he was freaking out over nothing. He decided to direct his focus onto the art pieces. Mishima didn’t know a lot about paintings or what made a piece worthy of being in an exhibit, but everything he saw seemed impressive enough. If he tried to paint something himself, he knew it would never be half as good as anything hung up there.

One painting in particular caught his eye. A hypnotic spread of black and red swirls. It felt almost as if he’d be sucked into the painting if he stared at it too long. He tore his attention away from the compelling art and read the title on the placard next to it:  _ Desire. Yusuke Kitagawa. _

His stomach dropped. Was it the same—?

“Is it this way?”

Mishima heard the familiar voice behind him. There was no mistaking that Ren was here. He turned slightly and caught a glimpse of Ren next to a less familiar looking boy. Anticipating that the pair were headed towards the painting he was in front of, he hid behind a pillar that would block him from their sight.

While he listened in to Ren’s conversation with his friend, he pulled up Ren’s phone info on his own and looked through his text messages. He saw a text thread between Ren and the same Yusuke that was added to the Phantom Thief group chat. They were talking about heading to the museum to look at Yusuke’s piece that he called “Desire.”

He exited out of the text messages and felt like kicking himself for not checking sooner. If he wanted to avoid Ren so badly, he knew exactly how to do it. Yet again, though, he was feeling like a coward. As if there was nowhere he could go without feeling unwelcome or unwanted.

The familiar voice once again broke his concentration. “Mishima?” Ren asked as he stood in front of him.

“H-Hey…” Mishima shifted his weight between his feet and looked behind Ren, unable to make eye contact.

Yusuke cleared his throat. “What a tense air…”

Ren smacked the palm of his hand to his own forehead. “Oh. Sorry. Yusuke. This is… This is Mishima.”

Yusuke bowed and Mishima did as well. “Hello, Yusuke.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mishima-san.”

Mishima felt weird about using Yusuke’s given name and cringed a bit, but Yusuke didn’t seem to mind.

Yusuke smiled at Mishima. “You are a friend of Ren’s?”

“He’s in my class.” Mishima replied and Ren frowned slightly.

“Ah.”

“How do _ you _ know him? That’s not a Shujin uniform.” Mishima’s tone was more accusatory and he crossed his arms and altered his stance to match. He knew that Yusuke was his replacement on the Phantom Thieves, but Ren probably wouldn’t tell him that.

“I—”

Ren cut in. “Yusuke’s a regular at Leblanc.”

“Indeed.”

Mishima nodded. “Got it.”

“So. What brings you to this exhibit?”

“Oh. Uh. I’m just a pretty big art guy, y’know?”

“Of course.” Ren responded, growing annoyed.

“But, anyway… I’ve already seen all I wanted to, so… I’ll catch you around.” Mishima bowed again and left Ren and Yusuke as quickly as possible.

He didn’t stop walking until he made it back to the train. On the way back to Shibuya, he felt he could take a breath and shake out his nerves. There were a few empty seats and he took one. To keep himself from fidgeting, he took out his phone and there was an unexpected notification.

**Shiho:** Yuuki! Are you busy tomorrow?

**Yuuki:** Hey Shiho. I don’t think I am? What’s up?

**Shiho:** I’ve just been very restless lately.

**Shiho:** Especially now that I don’t have volleyball practice. I have so much free time.

**Yuuki:** Yeah me too.

**Shiho:** So, I was thinking we could do something together if you’re available!

**Yuuki:** Sure. I’m free! Anything in mind?

**Shiho:** There’s a nice café Ann and I always go to that I think you’d like.

**Yuuki:** Oh.

**Yuuki:** Ann is coming?

**Shiho:** Huh? No. She’s busy tomorrow.

**Yuuki:** Oh, okay.

**Shiho:** Do you not like Ann?

**Yuuki:** No, I do!

**Yuuki:** I mean. She’s my classmate and everything and I’ve known her since middle school.

**Yuuki:** I just don’t think she likes me is all.

**Shiho:** I’m sure that’s not true! What’s not to like?

**Shiho:** And Ann is really nice!

**Yuuki:** Yeah.

**Shiho:** She is busy tomorrow, but maybe some other time all three of us could do something!

**Yuuki:** Yeah, maybe

**Shiho:** Anyway, I’ll text you tomorrow about where to meet up! See you soon!

**Yuuki:** See ya

Mishima put his phone back in his pocket. Before long, he arrived back at Shibuya and, not ready to go back home, he started visiting different shops in the underground mall. At one of the shops, he saw a heart-shaped ring that wasn’t too expensive and decided to buy it to give to Shiho tomorrow.

He passed by the subway entrance and took his phone out again. He waited as long as he could to check the website, but he started getting antsy. He wasn’t expecting to get too much traffic on the first day, but once he pulled the site up, he saw a few posts. Most of them seemed to be trolls or people joking around, but one in particular grabbed his attention.

_ I am trapped in a relationship that I cannot get out of. My boyfriend harasses me, uses me, and hits me when he gets upset. I’ve tried to leave him, but he always threatens to hurt my family if I do. I love my family more than anything and would never forgive myself if something happened to them. I can’t live like this anymore though. _

_ I’m sure this website is fake. Assassins don’t work for free. But in case they do, I might as well try this. _

One of the functions Mishima added to his website was the option for people submitting requests the ability to hide the name of the person they wanted to be targeted. That way, only Mishima would be able to see it. He clicked through to find the name. Hideo Kurai.

The name was not familiar at all. Maybe that would be a good thing. Regardless, the post made Mishima upset. Angry. He had always known people went through things like this, but he always felt helpless to stop it. Things were different now, though. He had the power to change things and save people and that was exactly what he was going to do.

He opened the nav app on his phone and entered “Mementos” for the first time.

_ Beginning navigation. _

Reality started twisting and warping and Umbra found himself at the entrance of Mementos. 

Mementos itself had an unpleasant atmosphere. Instantly, he connected that this place must have been the muse for Yusuke’s painting. After all, the Phantom Thieves had been there already. In fact, they could be there at this moment. Umbra had to make sure he was stealthy.

He wandered around for a while, not sure who he was looking for. It seemed to him like he might have been too hasty about this mission. He kept having to fight off shadow after shadow. Although they were weak, they quickly drained his energy.

Before too long, he was about to give up and try again another time when he saw an odd-looking, portal-like entrance. He took the plunge and entered. Beyond the portal, he saw a shadow standing in front of him. The shadow looked like a regular man in a suit, and seemed to be a few years older than Umbra.

He approached the shadow cautiously. “What’s your name?”

“What’s it ta ya?” The shadow hissed back.

He stood on the defensive and continued. “I’ll ask the questions here. You’re corrupted, aren’t you?”

It chuckled. “Maybe I am.”

“Name.” Umbra grew impatient.

“Hideo Kurai. Why’s it matter, though? Ya gonna steal my heart?”

“Not at all.”

It looked at the weapon Umbra held against his side. “Ya gonna kill me?”

“Someone should.”

“Says who, huh? Ya get ta play God all of a sudden?”

“Why not? You’ve abused your own girlfriend and even threatened to hurt her family. You make me sick. Someone should get rid of you and it might as well be me.” He squeezed the stock of his rifle. “I have nothing to lose.”

It shrugged and laughed more. “Me neither, kid.” Suddenly, Hideo’s shadow transformed into a powerful enemy.

Without hesitation, Umbra ripped off his mask and summoned his persona. “Mayari!”

Mayari attacked the shadow with a gravity spell but it hardly had any effect.

The shadow countered the attack by using a strong curse spell, and knocked Umbra down. It then took another shot at him, almost completely draining him of energy. Umbra hardly had any stamina left and struggled back up to standing.

Having Mayari summoned was proving to be more strenuous than he could handle. He pulled out his other weapon and opted for more close combat. 

His ranged weapon was a rifle, but he only had so much ammo and needed to save what was left for the killing blow that would complete his mission. His melee weapon, however, was a heavy club with a spiked, metal head. It was unwieldy and Umbra didn’t have much practice using it. Still, he managed as best as he could and attacked the shadow at close range.

Soon, it became weak and Umbra was able to knock it out. Being spent himself, he fell back onto the ground and tried to catch his breath. The shadow returned to its original form, slumped over and solemn.

“I’m sorry…” The shadow spoke slowly. Umbra raised his head to look at it and saw it covering its face as it began to sob. “I’m rotten. I don’t deserve Koto… I never have… I just… couldn’t lose her…”

Umbra was breathing heavily as he listened to the shadow cry. He sat up and grabbed his rifle.

“Go ‘head. Kill me. Please.”

He brought the weapon into position, pressing his cheek against the stock of the gun, and aimed it steady. The shadow continued to sob and, after a moment of hesitation, Umbra pulled the trigger and Hideo’s shadow disappeared. 

He lost his grip and the weapon clattered to the floor. Umbra’s body followed and he sat on the floor of Mementos and began to cry.


	7. Strange Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“These days I can't seem to get along with anyone_
> 
> _Get by with anyone_
> 
> _These days I can't seem to make this right_
> 
> _Well, is this fine? Will it be alright?”_

The lectures at school the next day dragged on. Summer vacation was approaching soon, which meant that finals would be coming up even sooner. Mishima shifted his attention between the notes scribbled on the blackboard, the clock that hung above it, and the heavy rain hammering against the classroom window. Really just anything he could focus on instead of his own thoughts was welcome to him.

Soon after his teacher dismissed the class for the day, Mishima got a text from Shiho.

**Shiho:** Heyyyy :)

**Yuuki:** Hi Shiho!

**Shiho:** Do you want to meet up at the café still? I can send you directions.

**Shiho:** Or I could meet you in front of the school and we can go together? I haven’t left yet!

**Yuuki:** Sure! I’ll meet you there!

**Shiho:** Okay! See you soon!

Mishima smiled and slipped his phone in his pocket. He rounded up his belongings and put them in his bag. He started to head for the door when someone stopped him.

“Mishima, wait.”

He turned around and saw Ann catching up to him.

“Hello, Takamaki. Can I help you with something?”

Ann bit her lip and looked away. “Where are you going in such a rush?”

“Nowhere.”

“I see…”

“I mean, I’m going somewhere, but it’s not a big deal or anything. Aren’t you busy today anyway?”

“Huh?” Ann stepped back. “What does it matter?”

Mishima shrugged. “It doesn’t.”

“Okay. Whatever. Just forget it.” Ann left the classroom in a huff.

Mishima figured Shiho and Ann must have talked about him, but it wasn’t clear to him what they could’ve said. He knew Ann didn’t like him anymore, but he didn’t care that much. No one really liked him, and he was fine with it. He tried to not overthink the exchange, and instead focused on meeting up with Shiho.

He made it to the front steps of Shujin, and saw Shiho facing out towards the road as she waited for him by the gate. Mishima opened up his umbrella and walked up behind her.

“Shiho!” He smiled and waved to get her attention from the steps.

She turned around and returned the smile. “Yuu—”

Before she could finish greeting him, two third years ran up behind Mishima. One of them snatched Mishima’s umbrella from him, while the other knocked his bag off of his arm, effectively spilling all of his textbooks and notebooks into a puddle in the grass.

“Hey, zero! Watch where you’re going!” The taller of the two boys kicked Mishima in the back of his leg, causing him to fall to his knees.

“Aww, Yuu-chan. You’re such a loser.” The other boy taunted.

Mishima shut his eyes tight and brought his knees close to his chest, just waiting for the bullies to leave him alone. The rain hit hard against his skin and quickly dampened his clothes. As his tormentors laughed at him, Shiho ran up to the scene.

“Hey!”

They turned to her. The one who was holding onto Mishima’s umbrella stepped towards her. “What do you want?”

“Stop picking on him.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because he’s my friend. It’s not right to bully someone, either.”

The pair of boys laughed harder. “Whatever, Suzui-san. You know, you need to be careful about who you hang out with. First Takamaki, and now this nerd.”

“Yuuki is a cool person. Now leave him alone.”

“Sure. No problem. You two have fun.”

He left with his friend, Mishima’s umbrella still in his possession. Shiho watched them leave and once they were out of sight, she knelt down next to Mishima and held her umbrella over him. His eyes were still closed, and he was fidgeting with the fabric of his suspenders.

Shiho gently placed her hand on Mishima’s knee, and he recoiled. “Yuuki…”

“Please go…” Mishima struggled to speak.

“No. No, I’m not going to leave you here.”

He slowly opened his eyes, but avoided looking at Shiho. “Do what you want then.”

“I want to spend time with you.” Shiho frowned and then offered her umbrella to Mishima. “Here. Hold onto this.” Mishima took it while Shiho reached over to retrieve his belongings that fell in the puddle. She gathered it all in her arms and put it back in the bag. “It’s not too wet. We can probably salvage some of this. Now come on.” She offered her hand out. “Let’s get you somewhere dry.”

Mishima nodded and took her hand. She helped him up and led him across the street to stand under the awning of the nearby garage. Once they got cover, Mishima tried wringing some of the water in his clothes. “I feel like such an idiot…”

“No, you’re not. Yuuki, those guys are idiots.”

“Yeah. It’s just embarrassing. I… don’t want you to see me like that.”

“It’s okay. I don’t think any less of you.” Mishima didn’t respond. “How about I call a cab? If you still want to go to the café with me, I’d like that. But if not, I don’t mind riding with you on the way to your place.”

Mishima looked at her this time. “You still want to go? Really? You’re not just saying that?”

“Of course not.”

“Oh…”

Shiho smiled wide. “They have really great macarons there, and I think you’d really like them!” She giggled.

“O-Okay.” Mishima couldn’t help smiling, too. “I’d like that, then.”

“Great! I’ll get us a cab!”

A couple different taxi cabs passed by the two of them and eventually Shiho was able to get one to stop. She opened the door and Mishima climbed inside. She followed him in, and the driver took off before they even put their seatbelts on.

“Where to?” The driver asked as he turned out of the Shujin school property. Shiho gave him the address and he chuckled to himself. “Ah, going to a French bakery with your boyfriend after school?”

Shiho blushed. “S-Something like that…”

Mishima was too embarrassed to respond to the driver himself. 

Both of them were silent for the majority of the ride. Shiho was humming along to the different J-pop songs that the driver played on the radio. Mishima mostly looked out the window and tried to keep a count of how many red cars they passed by as he listened to Shiho’s humming. It was comforting, and kept him from thinking toxic thoughts.

A short while later, they arrived in front of the bakery. The driver put the cab in park. “Here we are. You two lovebirds have fun.”

“Thank you…” Shiho mumbled as she stepped out of the cab.

“Thank you very much.” Mishima managed to thank the driver as well before he stepped out.

The rain had let up a great deal during the drive, but it was still sprinkling enough for them to want to hurry inside the building. The air inside was cool and felt harsh against Mishima’s still damp clothes and skin. He shivered.

Shiho turned to him. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Fine. Just cold.”

“Mm.” She looked towards her bag. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I brought a coat or anything.”

“That’s okay. It’s nearly summer, so I wouldn’t expect you to.” He tried to chuckle to make her feel better, but it didn’t sound very convincing or genuine. “Let’s sit.”

Shiho led him to her favorite booth, and they sat down across from each other. The two of them picked up menus and looked for something to order. Mishima settled on a warm, hearty soup while Shiho ordered a half sandwich and side salad. As they waited for their food to arrive, they talked about preparing for finals and how they thought they’d do on them. Later beginning to gossip about the people at the top of their class and how they “have to be cheating.”

The food came and Mishima, having no appetite, just stared at it.

“Something bothering you, Yuuki?”

“Where do I start?” He chuckled pathetically.

“Start anywhere. I don’t mind listening. You always listen to me.”

Mishima nodded. “Yeah.”

“Did… Did something happen between you and Ann?”

“Hm?”

“Is that what’s bothering you, I mean? You said she didn’t like you and I don’t really know why.”

“N-Not exactly. Nothing really… happened. It’s just… I, uh—”

Shiho lightly poked her fork into her salad. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s not really my business, anyway. I just want you to know I’m here if you need to talk about it.”

“Thank you.” He replied as he picked up his spoon and started to stir his soup. It was too hot to eat, so he looked down as he stirred, letting the steam hit his face. “I’ll be alright. I wasn’t really close with Takamaki or Sakamoto to begin with anyway. Or… Amamiya.”

“Mm-hm. She definitely has been hanging out with those two a lot lately.” Shiho shuffled around the spinach in her salad, reluctant to take another bite. “But that’s okay. I’m sure she feels the same way about us spending time together. I just wish we could all be friends, though.”

“Me too.”

She hummed. “I’m being a little depressing, huh?”

“What? No! No. Not at all. If anyone is being depressing, I mean… wow, I probably would win first place in a depression contest.”

Shiho held back a giggle. “I don’t know if it’s okay to laugh at that.”

“You can laugh.” She did. “I know Ann still really cares about you. I don’t think she’s trying to blow you off or cut you out or anything. She’s not like that. If she was, she’d be crazy to let someone like you out of her life.”

“Thanks…”

Mishima was trying to comfort her, but his attempts seemed to fall flat. “Sorry. Maybe just tell her how you’re feeling?”

“Maybe…” She shook her head and took a sip of tea as if she needed it to jumpstart her mood. “Anyway! Why don’t we talk about something more fun? Like…” She brought her finger up to her chin and crinkled her nose, concentrating hard. Her expression made Mishima smile and a lightbulb went off in Shiho’s mind. “I know! Do you like riddles?”

“Riddles?” Shiho nodded, eagerly. “Uh, you mean like… “a man rides into town on Friday…?” Those kinds of things?”

“Yes. Those things. They’re called riddles.” She teased.

“Ha. Yeah. I guess they’re alright? I don’t think they excite me as much as they do you, but…”

“Oh, you just haven’t heard the right riddles yet! I’m not talking about grade school riddles, you know. Those are so easy.”

Mishima leaned his back against the seat. “You know harder ones?”

“Yeah! Have you ever heard of the riddle of the two guards?”

“I… don’t think so?”

“Ooh, okay!” Shiho leaned forward, about to burst from excitement. “Okay. One second. Let me make sure I tell it right! Okay. Okay.” 

She took two of the small creamer cups that were on the table and sat them down in front of Mishima. “So. There’s two guards, okay? One guard—” She held up a low-fat hazelnut creamer. “Only tells the truth. And the other—” She lifted the French vanilla. “Only tells lies. Each guard is guarding a door. One of them guards a door that leads to a hangman, and the other guards a door that leads to freedom. You don’t know which door is which, and to figure out which door you can go through, you can only ask one guard one question. What will your question be?”

“Hmm…” Mishima crossed his arms and furrowed his brow as he stared at the creamers, thinking hard. “I guess I’d ask that one if he’s guarding the door to freedom.” He pointed at the hazelnut creamer.

“Okay. So, let’s say he says “yes.” Are you going to go through his door?”

Mishima nodded. “Yup.”

“How come? What if this guard was the liar?”

“He’s not.”

“How do you know?”

“You told me. You lifted it up and said that he only tells the truth.”

Shiho flicked the cup towards Mishima, and he put his hands up to block it. “I was trying to make it immersive, Yuuki! You aren’t supposed to know which guard is which!”

“Ohhh.” He pursed his lips. “Do I have to go through either door?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because those are the riddle rules.”

“Why can’t I ask two questions?”

Shiho rolled her eyes. “Riddle rules!”

“Okay. Fine. I give up. Just tell me.”

“Aw, come on! You barely even gave it any thought. I’m not going to give you the answer, you have to figure it out.”

He sighed. “Okay.”

“And no looking it up!”

He put his hands up, palms facing her. “I won’t. Promise. I’ll give it lots of thought.”

“Good!” She smiled and picked up her sandwich, taking her first bite of it. “Mmm!”

“How is it?”

“Mmm-mmm!” She nodded happily and Mishima smiled.

Shiho and Mishima enjoyed their meal together and started talking about a sports manga they both had read. Occasionally Mishima tried to solve the riddle, but Shiho instantly pointed out why the questions he picked wouldn’t work. Once they both finished their food, they paid and left the restaurant. 

They stepped outside and noticed it had stopped raining completely.

“I can take the train home from here.” Mishima said.

“You sure?”

He nodded. “Yeah. It’s no problem. I’m basically dry now, too.”

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow!”

“Yeah! See you.”

The two of them stood facing each other, awkwardly looking around and both refusing to part ways. Shiho quickly shuffled closer to Mishima and pulled him into a hug. Mishima froze for a second, but eventually wrapped his arms around Shiho. 

She took a deep breath in and then pulled away. “Sorry about that.” It looked like she wiped a tear out of her eye, but Mishima couldn’t exactly tell. “I’ll be going now.” Shiho turned around and started walking away from him.

Mishima turned the opposite direction, but then remembered something. He turned on his heel and called after Shiho. “Shiho! Wait!”

“Hm?” She turned back around and looked at him.

He pulled a small box out of his bag and handed it to Shiho. “I, uh… I got this for you. It was in the underground mall in Shibuya. It was kind of cheap, too, but I just… I thought of you, and I… um…”

Shiho opened the box and saw the heart-shaped ring inside. She gasped and tears instantly welled up in her eyes. “Thank you, Yuuki. I love it.” She set a hand on Mishima’s shoulder and bent down to kiss him on the cheek. Mishima turned bright red and Shiho giggled. “See you tomorrow.” She turned around and skipped away.

Mishima stood speechless and watched Shiho leaving until she was out of sight. 

**x x x x x**

_ Help, please. My dad won’t stop drinking and hitting my mom. I hate seeing her hurting and I want him gone forever. -Anonymous _

_ Request completed. -Umbra _

**x**

**JAPAN TODAY**

Are Shujin Academy Students Falling Victim to an Underground Criminal Ring?

**x**

**Ann:** Niijima-senpai! Welcome to the Phantom Thieves group chat!

**Makoto:** Thank you very much.

**Makoto:** But, please, honorifics are not necessary. And Makoto is fine!

**Ann:** Haha, okay Makoto!

**Ryuji:** Glad to have you on our team! Your persona is BAD! ASS!

**Makoto:** Thank… you?

**Yusuke:** Yes. Your role as strategist will prove beneficial to our group dynamic.

**Makoto:** I’m glad you all think so.

**Ren:** Welcome aboard.

**x**

_ I want revenge on the person who killed my sister. They’re a disgusting person who just wants to see people suffer. I need them gone. -Anonymous _

_ Request completed. -Umbra _

**x**

**Shiho:** Hey Yuuki! Wanna meet up today?

**Yuuki:** Yeah! Any place in mind?

**Shiho:** Not particularly.

**Shiho:** Why don’t we go somewhere you like?

**Yuuki:** Well, I’ve never been but I’ve always wanted to visit Harajuku.

**Shiho:** Oh! Yes! I’ve been there with Ann! There’s a lot of cool places!

**Shiho:** That sounds nice!

**Yuuki:** Great. I can meet you there soon!

**x**

**Makoto:** Are we headed to the palace today?

**Ryuji:** We might as well! Before Kaneshiro makes good on his threat.

**Ann:** Yeah, we only have so much time.

**Yusuke:** It’s your call, leader.

**Ren:** Let’s go today.

**x**

**THE JAPAN TIMES**

Junya Kaneshiro Confesses to Leading Crime Ring

**JAPAN TODAY**

Underground Crime Exposed! Brought to Justice by Phantom Thieves?

**TOKYO SHIMBUN**

Are the Phantom Thieves Real?

**x**

**Yuuki:** Okay. I think I figured it out.

**Shiho:** ?

**Yuuki:** The riddle!

**Shiho:** Oh? Lay it on me!

**Yuuki:** I’d just ask one of the guards to solve a math equation. Like 2 x 2.

**Shiho:** So, presumably, one would say 4 and the other would give a different number?

**Yuuki:** Yeah! So, then I’d know which guard was lying and which was telling the truth.

**Shiho:** And then which door do you pick? You’ve already asked your one question.

**Yuuki:** Oh…

**Yuuki:** Yeah.

**Yuuki:** Never mind.

**Shiho:** Keep thinking about it though! I believe in you!

**x**

**Ryuji:** You guys I am SO READY for the fireworks festival tomorrow.

**Makoto:** Ryuji. Stop texting. Start studying.

**Ryuji:** Ughhhh, fine.

**Yusuke:** I believe it is supposed to rain tomorrow, as well…

**Ann:** Come on! Don’t be so pessimistic! We need to celebrate!

**Ryuji:** HELL YEAH!

**Ren:** That doesn’t sound like studying, Ryuji.

**Ryuji:** Not you too…

**x**

**Yuuki:** I just got tickets for the midnight premiere of that movie you were telling me about!

**Yuuki:** I still haven’t seen the first two movies in the series, but I’d like to watch this one with you.

**Yuuki:** If you want to, too, I mean.

**Shiho:** NO WAY!

**Shiho:** REALLY YUUKI????

**Yuuki:** Yeah!

**Shiho:** I’d love to!

**Shiho:** But you HAVE to see the first two movies. It won’t make sense otherwise.

**Yuuki:** Oh…

**Shiho:** That’s okay, though! I have the DVDs! You can come over and we can watch them together!

**Shiho:** If you want.

**Yuuki:** I’d like that. :)

**Shiho:** Great!

**Yuuki:** :)

**x**

_ I am stuck in a horrible situation and I don’t know how to get out of it. I have an incredibly stressful job that takes up all of my time just so I can earn money to make a living. The problem is I don’t get to keep any of my money. My husband takes all of it from me every week and whenever I try to fight back, he attacks me. He’s bigger and stronger and I’m so afraid. But I can’t live like this anymore. I’ve tried going to the cops, but they won’t do anything. This is my last option… -Anonymous _

_ Request completed. -Umbra _

**x**

**Shiho:** I had a great time last night.

**Yuuki:** Me too!

**Yuuki:** I totally get why you love that series so much.

**Shiho:** Yeah, it’s inspiring, isn’t it?

**Shiho:** I love stories where the underdog prevails.

**Shiho:** Even though you always know how the movies are going to end, it’s exciting to see the journey he goes on! I look up to him a lot.

**Shiho:** Sorry! I’m rambling.

**Yuuki:** No! It’s okay! I love seeing you excited about stuff!

**Shiho:** I’d love to learn more about things you like.

**Yuuki:** Oh, that’s okay, the stuff I like is pretty lame.

**Shiho:** Why do you say that?

**Yuuki:** That’s just what everyone thinks.

**Shiho:** I’m sure not everyone feels that way.

**Shiho:** And if it’s something you like, it’s not lame to you!

**Yuuki:** Well… there is this manga…

**Shiho:** Hold on! I’m going to call you! I want to hear you tell me about it!

**x**

**TOKYO SHIMBUN**

Hysteria Over Mysterious Cases of Stroke Occurring in Seemingly Healthy Citizens

**THE JAPAN TIMES**

Detective Prince Goro Akechi Stands by Statement “The Phantom Thieves are Not Just”

**THE JAPAN TIMES**

Medjed Declares War on the Phantom Thieves

**x**

**Alibaba:** Why haven’t you done anything yet????

**Ren:** We still need a name.

**Alibaba:** Are you serious?

**Alibaba:** You’re making this so hard…

**x**

**Shiho:** Yuuuuuuuuuuuuki

**Yuuki:** Shiiiiiiiiho

**Shiho:** This summer vacation is so boring :(

**Shiho:** I almost miss school.

**Yuuki:** You don’t mean that.

**Shiho:** No, you’re right, I don’t.

**Shiho:** But still! I want to do something fun!

**Yuuki:** Fun, huh?

**Yuuki:** What about an amusement park? I think they have a sale going on for the summer vacation.

**Shiho:** Only if you don’t judge me for wanting to go on the kiddie rides.

**Yuuki:** Only if you don’t judge me!

**Shiho:** lol

**x**

**Ryuji:** We goin’ to the palace today?

**Ryuji:** We don’t have a lot of time left, y’know.

**Ren:** Let’s go.

**x**

**JAPAN TODAY**

The Phantom Thieves Defeat Medjed; Cleanse of Japan Called Off

**x**

_ Do I have to give a reason for you people to kill this guy? He’s a rapist and a murderer. Do everyone a favor please and get rid of him. -Anonymous _

_ Request completed. -Umbra _

**x**

**Makoto:** I’m so glad you’re awake and feeling okay, Futaba-chan.

**Futaba:** Thank you! (* ^ ω ^)

**Futaba:** Inari! No one asked you!

**Yusuke:** Excuse me?

**Yusuke:** I do not believe I said anything.

**Futaba:** ( ╯ ° 益 °) ╯彡┻━┻

**Yusuke:** What… is that?

**Futaba:** ┬─┬ ノ ( º _ º ノ )

**Yusuke:** …

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for 500+ hits! It means so much and I appreciate everyone's engagement on this so far. I hope you're all enjoying it.


	8. Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Your laugh echoes down the highway_
> 
> _Carves into my hollow chest, spreads over the emptiness_
> 
> _It's bliss_
> 
> _It's so simple but we can't stay_
> 
> _Overanalyze again, would it really kill you if we kissed?”_

After an eventful summer vacation, Mishima was anxious to get back to school. As much as he loathed seeing certain people every day, having a routine he could count on was nice. He was also starting to feel like he was becoming too consumed in the Virtual Vigilante website. The Shadows in Mementos were getting stronger the deeper he traveled, and having to fight them all off by himself was taking a toll on him.

Aside from all of the physical effects he was experiencing, he was dealing with a lot emotionally as well. Taking out a new target was never easy for him. He was constantly having to talk himself into it every time he went into mementos. The emotional aftermath of taking out a Shadow seemed to be more bearable each time at least. It was like each time he would feel numb to it earlier and earlier.

Mishima felt it would be a good opportunity to take a break from his work. The second semester had just started and the second years at Shujin would be kicking it off by going on a school trip to Hawaii. He didn’t think it was even possible to access Mementos in another country. Besides, a break was probably necessary for him.

The flight to Hawaii was on the evening on September 7th. Mishima went to the airport relatively early. He didn’t like the uncertainty of how long it would take to get through security and wanted to play it safe.

He got to the gate and waited awhile by himself. The time passed pretty quickly, although he didn’t have much to do to occupy himself. He was listening to a playlist he had when he saw Shiho approaching the gate. His excitement over seeing his friend was soon dampened when he noticed that she was walking with Ann. He slumped in his seat and looked away from them.

Ann and Shiho met up with Ren and Makoto, who were both waiting further away with their luggage. Mishima tried focusing on the lyrics to the song he was listening to, but his mind couldn’t concentrate on more than a few words at a time. He’d keep getting the urge to look over at Shiho and the others. He closed his eyes in a futile attempt to be distracted more easily, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He opened his eyes and was met with Kawakami looming over him. He took out both of his earbuds. “Ah… y-yes?” He stammered.

“Mishima-kun, can you make sure everyone is gathered together here at the gate? We’ll be boarding soon, and I just want someone to help me double-check so I don’t lose track.” Kawakami smiled.

Mishima tried to smile back. “Y-Yeah. Sure.”

His teacher walked away and Mishima sighed deeply before getting up to relay the message to his classmates. The last group of people he had to alert were waiting off to the side. He looked to Shiho, who was turned away from him and saying something to Makoto. Just then, Ryuji ran up to meet with all of them.

Without further hesitation, he walked up to the group. “Hey, guys.” He spoke meekly.

Shiho turned around and squealed upon seeing Mishima. “Yuuki! You made it!” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug. He turned red, but rested his head against her and gave in to the comforting embrace. Ren and everyone else shifted around awkwardly, saying nothing. Shiho let go of Mishima and smiled.

“A-Anyway. Kawakami just wanted me to let you guys know that we’re boarding soon, so we should gather at the gate.”

“Oh, okay!” Shiho turned to Ann and grabbed her hand. “Let’s all go then!”

She led Ann to the gate and everyone else followed them. They waited together until they had to board, but no one spoke.

The seating arrangements on the plane were unfortunate. Mishima had an aisle seat in the same row as Ryuji and Ren. He didn’t know why it was done that way because “Amamiya, Sakamoto, Mishima” was definitely not alphabetical order. Part of him wanted to ask someone to switch seats with him, but Ryuji and Ren already noticed he was in their aisle, and he felt it would be pretty shitty to outwardly avoid the two of them. He sucked it up and just sat in his seat, putting in his earbuds again.

During the flight every once in a while, he thought he could hear his name being whispered between the pair, but refused to let himself indulge in the paranoia.

Six hours. He just had to deal with the next six hours.

Or not. Turns out the room assignments would be just as unfortunate as the seating arrangement on the plane.

“Amamiya-kun, you’re rooming with Mishima-kun. Period.” Kawakami ordered and walked off.

“Great…” Ryuji muttered under his breath.

Mishima scoffed. “You guys don’t have to act like rooming with me would be so horrible.”

“Dude. Are _ you  _ happy about this?” Ryuji asked and Mishima said nothing. “That’s what I thought.”

Ren stepped in between the two of them. “Guys, please. It’s fine, really.” He turned to Mishima. “We probably won’t be spending a ton of time in our hotel room anyway, right?”

Mishima shrugged. “I guess not.”

After the chaperones conducted roll call, the students were sent to their rooms to unpack. Mishima and Ren went to theirs together in silence. Ren had to abort his impulse to say something to Mishima. He had become a stranger to him, and he hated that. Still he knew if he tried to say anything, he’d get shut out immediately.

Ren quietly packed his extra clothes into one of the dresser drawers and placed his toiletries on the sink in the bathroom. When he was done, he sat on the bed that Mishima wasn’t already sitting on.

Mishima was texting Shiho on his phone, ignoring Ren.

Ren took the leap and finally spoke up. “Hey… Mishima?”

“Hm?” Mishima responded without looking up.

“Can I… talk to you about something?”

He sprung up quickly and grabbed his bag. “I’m meeting up with someone actually. Can it wait until tonight?”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure.”

“Okay.” Mishima walked out and closed the door a little too harshly behind him.

Shiho was at the beach under a palm tree, waiting for Mishima to arrive. He had changed into a swimsuit in the hotel lobby bathroom and met up with Shiho.

“Yuuki! You’re here!” Shiho walked up to Mishima and put her arms out, asking for permission for a hug.

He smiled and returned the embrace. He lingered for a bit before pulling away. Once he did, he looked around. “Is anyone else meeting up with us, or…?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Just us for now. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s okay.”

Shiho put her hand out for Mishima to take it. He did so and Shiho brought him to sit next to her on a bench, covered in the shade of the palms. She nervously fiddled with a string ribbon on the edge of her swimsuit skirt, and looked away. “Um… I… uh…” She faltered.

“Is something wrong?” Panic settled into Mishima, but he refrained from pushing Shiho to speak.

“No.” She turned to him. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Okay.” He made an attempt at putting on a cheerful expression. “Ask me anything.”

She chuckled to herself. “Ah ha… I just… I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a while, but I was too scared. I didn’t know what you’d say or how you’d react. I also just don’t want to ruin what we have, you know? But, um… then, I wanted this to be really romantic. I thought Hawaii might be a really nice place to ask you this, so…” She sighed deeply and scooted closer to Mishima. “I’m just going to ask you.” Shiho shut her eyes tight and blurted out her question. “Will you be my boyfriend?”

Mishima was stunned. He wanted to speak, but legitimately couldn’t remember how.

Shiho couldn’t stand the silence and continued. “I really like you and I think you’re so cool. I feel like you understand me, and I feel safe with you. Lately I’ve felt like maybe you _ like _ like me too? Maybe not, though. Maybe you’re just being nice, but I—”

“I like you a lot, Shiho.”

“Yuuki.” She smiled and went in for a hug, but stopped short when Mishima spoke again.

“I just…” He sighed and Shiho scooted back slightly. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t.”

“I guess not. But I feel like you deserve—”

“No.” She took both of Mishima’s hands in hers and looked at him. He was unable to look back, but she continued on. “Don’t tell me I deserve someone better than you. You’re amazing. I know people have always told you otherwise but they’re wrong. They don’t see you the way that I do. You don’t see it either, yet, but you will.”

He looked down at his hands nestled in Shiho’s own. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

He nodded. “I’d love to be your boyfriend.”

Immediately after, Shiho’s arms were around Mishima.

He rested his head on her shoulder and felt a mix of emotions that he couldn’t particularly identify. He knew he was feeling happiness. He’d liked Shiho for a long time and never even imagined that she reciprocated those feelings. Still, there was a less pleasant feeling in his chest at the same time. Fear? Guilt?

Before he could dwell on it too much, Shiho pulled away and faced him. Her voice was low as she spoke. “I… want to kiss you…”

He wanted to kiss her, too. Gently, he placed a hand on Shiho’s shoulder and lifted himself up slightly to meet her lips. He’d never kissed anyone before, but he was pretty sure he was supposed to close his eyes, so he did. Then he felt an arm wrap around his neck and press him in closer. He felt Shiho’s lips curve up into a smile before she moved away.

His eyes fluttered open. “Was that… okay?”

“Mm-hm.” She nodded before moving in for another kiss.

Shiho and Mishima spent most of their free time for the day together. Mostly just talking and walking down the beach holding hands. As the sun started to set, Shiho got a text from Ann asking to get dinner with her.

“Ann wants to go get burgers. Do you want to come?”

“Um.” He looked down. “I’m actually not feeling too good. I think I’m going to go back to my room and eat something there.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “Ann and I could just get takeout and then bring it to your room! You’re sharing a room with her friend, aren’t you? Amamiya-kun?”

“Uh. Yeah…” He shook his head. “That’s okay, though. Maybe another time. I think I just need to sleep.”

“Okay. Well, let me know if you need anything. Do you want me to walk you back to the hotel?”

“No, that’s okay. Thanks.” Mishima managed a smile and Shiho reciprocated.

“I’ll see you later, then. Feel better!” She bent down to kiss Mishima’s cheek and turned to leave towards the Big Bang Burger close to the beach.

A moment or two later, Mishima headed back to his hotel room on his own. He unlocked the door and opened it to a dark and empty room. He tossed his bag on his bed and changed into something comfortable to sleep in.

About an hour passed where all he did was lie in bed and scroll through different apps on his phone. His mind was feeling foggy, and he wanted to do something to keep his attention occupied. After a while longer, he wasn’t seeing any new posts on social media and ended up exiting out of everything he had pulled up. He locked his phone and set it on the nightstand.

There was a plant in the corner of the room that he looked at to try and focus on. He started contemplating on whether it was fake or real and eventually his eyes started to close, and he fell asleep.

He thought to himself that it couldn’t have been more than five minutes that passed before he opened his eyes again, but apparently it had been a few hours. The room was still dark but there was a stream of light spilling out from under the bathroom door. The shower was running, as well.

Mishima groaned and turned on his other side to face away from the bathroom and towards the window. He grabbed one of the pillows propped up against the headboard, and clung it tightly against his chest.

Ren emerged from the bathroom and sat on the edge of his bed and looked at Mishima. He turned on the bedside lamp.

“I can feel you staring at me.” Mishima mumbled into his pillow.

“We need to talk.” Ren got straight to the point.

He flopped over onto his other side to look at Ren. “You always want to talk.” He slowly lifted himself up and sat up to face Ren.

“I can’t even remember the last time we said more than two words to each other.”

“You just said “we need to talk.” That’s four words.”

“Mishima.”

“Okay. Fine. Sorry. What do you need to say to me?”

Ren blinked. There was a lot he needed to say, but wasn’t sure where to start and wasn’t expecting Mishima to be receptive to an open conversation. He sighed deeply and looked at Mishima head on. “I saw you.”

Mishima stiffened and his blood ran cold. “You… saw me?”

“Well, I guess,  _ we _ saw you.”

“Who is “we?” Saw me where? What are you talking about?”

“In Mementos.”

His stomach dropped. “M… Mementos…? What is that? I don’t—”

“Don’t play dumb, Mishima. You’re better than that. Please. Just please be honest with me.”

Mishima continued to play dumb. “Honest about what? I’m serious. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“We all saw you. Me, Ryuji, Ann, Morgana… And I’m sure you know Yusuke, Makoto, and Futaba now, too.”

“What…? What are you saying?”

“I know you already know all about this, so drop the innocent act, okay? Futaba saw that someone bugged my phone. Everyone thought it was you, too. I didn’t want to believe it, but… I saw you, Mishima. You were in Mementos. How else could you have known about it?”

“I…” He started to panic and felt himself nearly shutting down. “It’s none of your business!” He stood up and rushed towards the window, opening it to get some air.

“I’m not trying to accuse you of anything. I just want to know what you were doing there. Tell me and I won’t bother you about it again.”

“I’m not going to tell you anything. It doesn’t matter and it’s none of your business!” He repeated.

“Please.” Ren got up and approached Mishima. He tried placing a comforting hand on Mishima’s shoulder as gently as he could but Mishima instantly shrugged him off and smacked his hand away.

Mishima turned to him. “I don’t want to talk about this. Especially not to  _ you _ .”

“Why not? Mishima, what the hell did  _ I _ do to you? Why do you hate me so much? I have never done anything to you. I stick up for you all the time. Everyone thinks I’m stupid for it, too.”

“I don’t need you sticking up for me! I don’t need your pity, either. I can take care of myself. I don’t need the Phantom Thieves saving me from anything. You all can have all your fun stealing hearts together, I don’t need to be a part of it.”

Ren was quiet. “Is… that what this is about?”

“What?”

“Are you…? Mishima, I tried to get you to join us. You pushed me away.”

He scoffed. “Do you think I’m jealous of you or something? I’m not.”

“But you’re still going to the metaverse! Without us! You’re doing  _ something _ there.”

“God, why do you even care so much?”

“Because!” Ren shouted and noticed Mishima flinch. He sighed and tried to lower the level of his volume. “You’re Umbra, aren’t you?”

Mishima said nothing. He didn’t know how to respond without giving away his identity, but saying nothing probably didn’t help his case.

Ren laughed dryly, almost in disbelief. “I knew it. God. Fuck, I’m an idiot.”

“What’s so funny?”

“I just can’t believe this. What happened to you?”

He spoke softly. “Where should I start?”

“There’s something really wrong with you, Mishima.”

“I know, okay? You think I don’t know that? What are you going to do? Change my fucking heart?” Ren shrugged. “Go ahead! Go and try. Do whatever you want. I don’t care what happens to me.”

“What about Shiho?”

Mishima inhaled sharply. “What about her…?”

“Are you just using her or something? Because that would be messed up. Even for you.”

“I’m not using her! I care about her.”

“Does she know you killed Kamoshida?”

“Fuck you.”

Ren took a step back and lowered his voice more. “Does she?”

“Shut up! You don’t know… You don’t know anything about me, or her, or us. Just… Just leave me the fuck alone!”

“Fine. Whatever. I’m gonna spend the night in Ryuji’s room then. I won’t bother you anymore.” Ren turned around quickly, gathering his things before leaving Mishima alone in the room.

Mishima rubbed his eyes with his sleeve and lowered to the ground. It took everything in him not to cry. He clenched his fists to steel his nerves and stand up before going to the bathroom to wash his face. After patting his face dry with a towel, he glanced at himself in the mirror. His features weren’t anything special. The only thing of note was that his eyes looked dead and empty. Not being able to bear his reflection for much longer, he switched off the light and went back to his bed to rest for the night.


	9. Roman Holiday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“And we know that we're headstrong_
> 
> _And our heart's gone_
> 
> _And the timing's never right_
> 
> _But for now let's get away_
> 
> _On a Roman holiday”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter for this update, but I'm very excited for the next chapter and the ones after it. I hope you enjoy! Thanks again for all the support. :)

The next morning, Mishima felt weak and had trouble dragging himself out of bed. He chalked it up to the fact that he went to bed without eating dinner the night before. His class was supposed to meet in the lobby at 9 AM for roll call, so he only had about twenty minutes to get ready. In a rush, he got dressed and made himself presentable enough to be seen around his other classmates.

By the time he made it there, most of the students on the trip were already waiting. He stood in the corner and scanned the lobby for Shiho. She was on the other side of the room, laughing and talking with Ann. He liked seeing her happy, but he felt a little sad seeing Ann as well. Ann wasn’t a bad person, and he had nothing against her, but being around her always made Mishima feel ashamed of himself. He’d have to get past that if he wanted things to go well with Shiho, though.

Mishima gathered as much confidence as he could and walked up to the two of them. “Hi, Shiho. Hey, Takamaki.”

Shiho turned away from Ann and smiled. “Yuuki! Hi!”

Ann forced her own smile. “Hi, Mishima. Shiho told me about what happened between you two yesterday.”

Mishima turned red. “O-Oh?”

She giggled. “Yep. Congrats. I’m happy for you two!”

“Ah. Thank you, Takamaki.” Ann certainly seemed genuine, which was a relief to Mishima, but he was wary of pushing his presence if he wasn’t welcome. “Do you two have plans today?”

Shiho frowned and turned to Ann. “Well, I don’t, but…”

Ann sighed. “Yeah… I’m sorry again, Shiho.”

“No, it’s okay! Maybe Yuuki and I can do something?”

Mishima nodded. “Y-Yeah. Definitely. I’m totally free if you wanna hang out!”

“That’s great.” Ann looked at Shiho with a sympathetic expression. “I hope you two have a good time together.”

“Thank you, Takamaki.” Mishima bowed reflexively, and then felt a little silly after doing so. Shiho and Ann giggled.

The teachers and chaperones on the trip then began to conduct roll call. Once they were finished, all the students were dismissed for free time. Ann gave Shiho a hug and presumably left to meet up with Ren and the others to discuss Phantom Thieves business.

Mishima and Shiho walked together to go find somewhere to get breakfast. They settled on an outdoor restaurant and bar that served “authentic Hawaiian cuisine.” The two of them sat at a table and browsed the selection of food on the menu.

“I don’t think there are any waiters here.” Mishima observed. “I can go up to the bar and order something for you if you know what you want.”

Shiho nodded. “Oh, okay! Hmm.” She bit her lip and thought hard while staring at the menu. “I’ll just try the… Luau Punch? That’s Hawaii-like, right?”

“Yes. Very.”

“Great! I’ll take one of those!”

“Got it!” Mishima got up out of his seat and got in line at the bar.

He ordered the drink Shiho requested, as well as another one for himself. After he paid and got his drinks, he thanked the bartender and turned a little too quickly on his heel and walked forward, not seeing where he was going. He knocked into someone and spilled both drinks on the ground, the splash back effectively getting on his and the unlucky stranger’s clothes.

“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! I’m so sorry!” Mishima hurriedly picked up the drink cups and pulled a dozen napkins out of the dispenser on the bar. He went to dab the spilled drink of the stranger’s blouse, but froze before he could do so. “I… Uh… I don’t… I’m so sorry!”

“Oh. Please do not worry. My apologies.” The kind girl in front of Mishima smiled and pulled out a silk handkerchief with an intricate floral design. She dabbed the wet parts of her blouse.

“I really didn’t mean to do that! I should’ve been watching where I was going but I’msosorryI’msuchanidiot—”

“It’s quite alright.” She glanced at Mishima’s clothes and recognized his uniform. “Are you here for the school trip for Shujin students? I don’t recognize you.”

“Hm? Yeah, I um. I’m Yuuki Mishima. I’m in class 2-D.”

“Oh!” She giggled. “Of course. I’m not familiar with many of the students in that class. I’m a third year helping chaperone, actually. My name is Haru Okumura.”

“Ah, I see.” He bowed deeply. “It’s very nice to meet you, Okumura-senpai! I’m sorry I’ve made such a rotten first impression…”

Haru bowed as well. “Please, really, it’s an honest mistake, Mishima-kun. I’m sorry you’ve lost both of your drinks! Are you with someone?”

“Uh, y-yeah, my girlfriend.” He looked towards Shiho and nodded in her direction.

Haru followed his line of sight and gasped. “Oh! She’s beautiful.” She turned back to Mishima. “I hope you two are very happy together. I feel just awful about you losing your beverages…”

“I-It’s fine! Don’t worry about it!”

“No, please! Allow me to purchase you fresh ones!”

He shook his head. “No, don’t! That’s not necessary—”

“I insist. Money is no object.”

“W-Well… I…”

Haru approached the bar and ordered two more Luau Punch drinks, large.

Mishima sighed, exasperated. “Th-Thank you very much, senpai.”

Moments later, the bartender handed Haru the drinks and she handed them to Mishima. “Please be careful this time.”

He chuckled. “Yeah.”

“Would you mind if I said hello to your girlfriend? I’d like to apologize to her as well for the long wait.”

“Oh! That’s not necessary, but I’d be more than happy to introduce you.”

Haru nodded and Mishima led her over to his and Shiho’s table. He set both of the drinks on the table and pulled a chair out for Haru. She took a seat.

“Thank you, Mishima-kun!”

He turned to Shiho. “Um. Shiho, this is Haru Okumura, she’s here on the trip as a chaperone.

“Nice to meet you, Okumura-senpai!”

“And, um.” He turned back to Haru. “This is Shiho Suzui. Both of us used to be on the volleyball teams, before…”

“Oh!” Haru piped up. “I thought you looked familiar Suzui-san! I’ve seen you play at the rallies before. You’re very talented.”

Shiho blushed. “Thank you…”

“Oh, but…” She pouted. “I’m sorry about what happened to the team. That was… awful…”

“Yes…”

“My condolences.” Haru’s voice sounded sad and genuinely sympathetic. “Were you close to him?”

“N-No. It’s a little hard for me to talk about.”

“Of course. I’m very sorry, Suzui-san. And you as well, Mishima-kun. I should be going now. Please, enjoy your beverages together, and I hope the rest of the trip is pleasing to you.” She started to walk away but Mishima called after her.

“Wait.”

She turned back to him. “Hm? Is everything okay?”

“Yes, just… Would you like to join us? It’s okay if you already have plans, but…”

“Oh! I’d love to!” Haru sat back down with the couple. “I don’t know many people on this trip. It’s been a little lonely…”

Shiho offered her hand to Haru. “I think Yuuki and I would both be more than happy to spend time with you! If you’ll have us.” She looked towards Mishima for confirmation and he nodded.

“Thank you both so much for your kindness.” A small giggle.

For the rest of the trip, Mishima, Shiho, and Haru became an inseparable trio.

**x x x x x**

Once the Hawaii trip had finally ended, all of the students and chaperones from Shujin Academy returned to Japan, left with only souvenirs, memories, and debilitating jet lag. Spending only four days in another country wasn’t nearly enough time to explore even a fraction of what there was to offer, and oftentimes it felt as though there wasn’t enough time to breathe. The trip was more stressful than it was relaxing for most of those involved.

Nonetheless, everyone was back in Japan and it was time for Mishima to get back to his work. He liked having time away from even thinking about the Virtual Vigilante website, but before he could get used to the feeling of not having the responsibility anymore, the site became flooded with messages.

He looked over the new posts in the forum when he got a text message.

**Haru:** Mishima-kun! Suzui-san! I made a group chat so the three of us could communicate with one another!

**Haru:** Are both of you able to see these messages?

**Shiho:** I can see them!

**Yuuki:** Yeah

**Haru:** Fantastic!

**Haru:** I hope everyone is feeling okay this morning. It’s morning, right? I’ve been so tired since we arrived back in Japan.

**Shiho:** Me too :( 

**Shiho:** I nearly fell asleep while making myself breakfast.

**Haru:** Oh no! Please be careful!

**Shiho:** I’ll try haha :P

**Haru:** Good!

**Haru:** I suppose I should leave for school soon. I trust I’ll see you both there?

**Shiho:** Yes! We’ll be there!

**Yuuki:** Yeah

Mishima put his phone down, thinking that would be the end of the conversation. A few minutes later, however, his phone buzzed. It was Shiho, but it was not a notification from the group chat this time.

**Shiho:** Yuuki? Are you okay?

**Yuuki:** Yeah

**Yuuki:** Why?

**Shiho:** You seem quiet this morning.

**Yuuki:** Sorry. Just tired. Jet lag.

**Shiho:** :(

**Yuuki:** I’ll be okay.

**Shiho:** Okay. I’m going to finish getting ready then.

**Shiho:** See you.

**Yuuki:** **❤**

**Shiho:** **❤**

It was becoming increasingly difficult for Mishima to lie and keep things from Shiho, but he was sure that telling Shiho the truth would make her want to leave, and he wasn’t sure he could handle that right now.

He tried shaking off his feelings of guilt, but still they lingered as he got ready for school. The morning lectures dragged on more than usual. Trying to keep his eyes open while Ms. Usami continued her lesson on ratios proved to be a difficult feat. However, somehow, the lectures did eventually end and it was time for lunch break.

It had become pretty standard at this point for Mishima and Shiho to meet up for lunch on the rooftop. They didn’t even need to text and confirm plans, that’s just what they always did. Seeing who would make it to the roof first had actually become somewhat of a competition between the two. Although the 2-D classroom was much closer to the rooftop distance-wise, Shiho swore she knew a shortcut. Seemingly, there were no shortcuts to be found, but every single time—without fail—she was already setting up the blanket on the roof by the time Mishima arrived.

With a forceful push, Mishima opened up the door and was greeted with empty space. “Shiho?” He called out cautiously, half-expecting his girlfriend to pop up behind him and scare him. “Shiho, I know you’re up here…” He looked under and behind some of the classroom desks, and was again met with nothing. As his back was turned to the door to investigate around the exhaust fans, two familiar voices drew closer. He quickly turned back around to see Shiho and Haru, arm in arm, laughing and talking.

“Oh!” Mishima shuffled awkwardly. “Okumura-senpai, welcome.”

Haru’s warm smile was infectious. “Thank you, Mishima-kun.”

Shiho broke free from Haru to approach her boyfriend. “I thought I’d invite Haru up here today. I usually see her eating alone, so… Um. Is that okay?”

“Of course.” He took her hand in reassurance. “The more the merrier. Glad to have you, Okumura-senpai.”

“Please, I’d be delighted if you just called me Haru. Both of you are my friends.”

The couple nodded in unison. “The feeling is mutual. Right, Yuuki?”

“Right.” Mishima smiled and set his lunch down on one of the desks. Haru moved towards the one next to it to do the same. “Oh, no, wait! Don’t sit in that one. The leg is busted.”

“Oh! Oh, no!” She gasped and looked around at the other desks to determine which ones would be suitable enough to support her weight. “Does that one work?” She asked while pointing at one with a broken surface.

“Uh.” Mishima picked his lunch up off the desk and motioned for Haru to take it from him. She did so and then the others brought over the only two decent desks on the roof.

They exchanged glances and smiles and began eating. Shiho peered over at Mishima’s bento box and made a small noise of approval. “Hm?” Mishima turned to her. “What is it?”

“You’ve been improving. I never would have even thought to use a cucumber to make a frog face.”

“Aw, a frog? Let me see!” Haru giggled and Mishima groaned playfully while holding up his bento box for Haru to see his creation. “Yuuki, it’s so cute!”

“Ah, uh, th-thanks. It’s not a big deal, really, I just looked up some ideas online. It was nothing.”

“Still.” Shiho gave her boyfriend a small nudge. “It is cute.”

“Thanks…” 

As the minutes passed, they mostly chatted about different things. Lessons, classmates, stories from the trip, how tired they still were from the trip. 

During a lull in the conversation, Haru spoke up. “It’s an unusual feeling being here around other people. I’ve only been up here to tend to my vegetable garden.”

“Oh, that’s your garden?” Mishima asked. “I always wondered who was looking after those vegetables.”

“Yup! Those are mine. I usually come up here after school.”

Shiho smiled as she examined the garden closer. “I should’ve known you were the one taking care of them. I thought it was a janitor or something because the student council president is always telling people they can’t come up here. She hasn’t busted us yet, though.”

“You mean Niijima-san? She seems nice...” She smiled a little wistfully as she poked her rice around with her chopsticks.

“Do you know her?”

“Mm. No, not really. She’s just in my year. But she works very hard and is at the top of her class every semester.”

“You’ve never talked to her?”

Haru’s expression became more sad. “No. She has other friends.” Mishima and Shiho became equally sad. “I’m very sorry. Did I bring the mood down?”

“No, it’s okay. Yuuki and I just used to be friends with her friends.”

“Used to be?” Mishima looked at Shiho. “You and Ann are still…? A-Aren’t you?” She was silent.

“I’m so sorry, Shiho.” Haru held back her own emotions as much as possible. “I didn’t mean to bring up unpleasant thoughts.” 

Slowly, Mishima moved his hand to hover over Shiho’s. She held onto his hand tight and the three of them stayed in silence until their lunch break was almost over. Haru stood up and hurriedly gathered her belongings. “I should be going now. Thank you both for having me.” She rushed her words almost as quickly as she rushed back inside the school.

“Um. Shiho. I…”

“It’s alright, Yuuki.” She squeezed his hand and attempted a smile. “I’m okay. We should head back to class.”

“Okay, well, if you need to talk…” Shiho nodded and exited the rooftop without any further response.

During the rest of the school day, Mishima was constantly checking his phone for any texts from either Shiho or Haru. Texting them first might be an unwelcome gesture, so he decided to give them both some space. Regardless, he was worried about them and wanted to make sure they were okay. He carefully slipped his phone out to send something to the group chat when Mr. Ushimaru shouted his name.

“Mishima-kun! Put that phone away! No electronics out during the lecture!”

He nodded. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

While he was putting his phone back in his pocket, he caught a glimpse of Ann turned in her chair, whispering something to Ren. He scoffed quietly and faced forward, listening to Mr. Ushimaru drone on about currency issued by the government.


	10. Hold Me Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Selfish_
> 
> _Taking what I want, and call it mine_
> 
> _I’m helpless_
> 
> _Clinging to a little bit of spine”_

The school day had ended and Mishima was already back home in his room, still with zero notifications on his phone. With a groan, he flopped helplessly onto his bed.

It occurred to him that he hadn’t even accessed the Virtual Vigilante website since before he left for Hawaii. He opened up the site on his phone and was bombarded with hundreds of requests. It was too overwhelming to look through all of them individually, so he scrolled for a bit before deciding to land on a random spot.

_ My boss treats me like garbage and doesn’t even value me as a human being. I have to work such long hours with no breaks for meals or even going to the bathroom. I’m barely eating or sleeping. I can’t quit because I need the money but I just wish I didn’t have to go through this every single day…. _

_ -Anonymous _

After working on so many requests for so long, Mishima had become numb to what he was doing and the hesitation that used to overwhelm him, lessened more and more. But after what happened with Ren in Hawaii, some hesitation came creeping back.

He took a deep breath and switched his brain on auto-pilot, navigating to mementos in search of his next target.

_ Beginning navigation. _

Now that he had the name of his target, all that was left to do was find him and execute him. Finding a target proved to be more difficult sometimes than others. Generally, he found, the more twisted or warped a shadow was, the further they’d be down in mementos. The shadows he was going after lately were way down in the depths, and taking care of just one target drained him of all his energy. Umbra decided to take it slow since it had also been awhile since he had even gone to the metaverse.

As he descended, he grew tired and still saw no sign of even being close to his intended target. Eventually, he made it down to a new platform and, after seeing there were no shadows in the immediate area, he retreated to a corner to rest for a moment. He buried his head in his arms as he clung his knees close to his chest and tried to breathe deeply. 

Breathe in four… hold for four… out for four… Breathe in four… hold for four… out for four… One, two, three, four… Hold… One, two, three, four. One, two, clink… four… Hold… Clink, clink. Clank. Thud.

A hollow roar bellowed throughout the depths, and suddenly Umbra was cornered by a particularly fierce and powerful shadow.

“Persona!” Umbra called out on instinct to summon Mayari. He decided to concentrate his energy to yield a more critical attack later. Instantly, his opponent knocked him down with a strong curse spell. While the enemy was open to receive another attack, Umbra was already too weak and felt his consciousness beginning to fade after only one hit. “What the… hell?” He shut his eyes, hoping that playing dead might ward off the shadow.

Even through his closed eyes, he saw a bright flash and heard another roar from the shadow. Although he was scared to learn what might be happening around him, he opened his eyes to see a large mass doubled over on the ground. He inched forward to examine it closer when a bright red sword pierced straight through the middle of his vision. 

“Stay back. It’s not dead yet.”

“Huh?” Umbra looked up to see a dark figure towering over him, facing the shadow. 

This person was definitely a persona user, but their voice wasn’t similar to any one of the people Umbra had confirmed to be a member of the Phantom Thieves. It definitely wasn’t Ren or Ryuji. And although he had only met Yusuke once, his voice was much softer. Did they have someone new working for them?

“Are you an idiot?” The intimidating figure’s mean-spirited question broke Umbra’s concentration, and he looked up at them. “I said. Stay back.”

Umbra obeyed and scooted backwards as the Black Knight continued fending off the shadow.

It didn’t take long for them to defeat the shadow. They seemed virtually unphased by each attack they came up against, and each blow they dealt did more damage than the one before it. A few moments later, the shadow became visibly worn down and immediately retreated.

The stranger scoffed as they watched it scurry away, helpless and pathetic. Once it was out of view, they turned around swiftly, and knelt down to look at Umbra. “Can you walk?” They asked, more out of irritation than concern.

“Y-Yeah…” He responded. “Probably.”

“You’re not really  _ him _ , are you?”

“Wh-Who?”

They laughed wryly. “Nevermind. Go back home before you get hurt.”

“I don’t care if I get hurt.”

“Clearly.” They brushed some dust off their shoulders and looked into Umbra’s eyes. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

He quickly broke the eye contact to stare off somewhere else like a petulant child. “I didn’t say thank you.” 

“Right. Of course. Because you were perfectly strong enough and skilled enough to take on the Reaper shadow all by yourself.”

“Exactly.”

The rude stranger stifled a laugh. “No wonder the famous Phantom Thieves didn’t want you…” They commented under their breath, but still had the full intention of being heard.

“Excuse me? That is not what happened! Just who the hell  _ are you _ ?”

“Oh? My… I seem to have struck a nerve.”

Umbra squinted to try and place the identity of the stranger. The tone and character of their voice started to sound familiar. When they brought a hand up to cup their chin, it clicked.

“Goro… Akechi?” It sounded ridiculous coming out of his mouth. There was no way the famous detective prince Goro Akechi just saved his life and was currently standing right in front of him in mementos. But, sure enough…

“Brava. You catch on quick, it seems.”

He was dumbfounded. “But… I… what?”

“Not quick enough, though, huh? You’re looking for Kunikazu Okumura, are you not?”

“I…”

“Well, you won’t find him here. He has his own palace.” Umbra tilted his head. He had so many questions, but didn’t know where to begin. Akechi wasn’t going to allow him any more opportunities to speak, however. “But by all means, keep scouring for him down here. If you want to be killed in a place like this, be my guest. Saves me the trouble.”

“What?” Umbra turned to face him directly.

“Oh. Nothing. I better go.”

“Wait!”

Akechi departed at full tilt, and in a blink, he was gone. Umbra was isolated yet again, left only to reflect on Akechi’s words. 

The target had his own palace? He hadn’t even been in a palace since Kamoshida’s. Was the person he was after really as bad as Kamoshida? Certainly bad enough to be more twisted than any other person he had executed since. 

There wasn’t much of a point to staying in mementos right now. If he really wanted to go after his intended target, he’d need to figure out how to access his palace. By this point, his energy was almost completely depleted, so he chose to leave the metaverse for now and figure out a plan of action after a good night’s rest.

Upon returning to the real world, Mishima’s phone started to alert him of all the notifications he missed while he was gone.

**20 UNREAD MESSAGES**

All from his group chat with Shiho and Haru. He opened the chat and started to backread all of the missed messages. 

**Haru:** My apologies to you both.

**Haru:** I’m sorry I left you two today in such a hurry.

**Haru:** I felt like I had both overstepped and maybe overshared. I know it’s not pleasant to be around people who are sad.

**Shiho:** It’s okay Haru! It’s great being around you, and you being sad just makes us worried because we care about you.

**Shiho:** Right, Yuuki?

**Haru:** Thank you.

**Shiho:** I should be the one to apologize anyway. 

**Shiho:** Some stuff happened that I haven’t told anyone about.

**Haru:** If you need to get things off your chest, I think both Yuuki and I would be more than willing to listen.

**Shiho:** Same to you, Haru.

**Shiho:** I think we could all use that actually.

**Shiho:** Some time to just share what’s been on our minds in a safe space. No judgment.

**Haru:** That sounds delightful.

**Shiho:** Let’s all go somewhere after school tomorrow. I know this great place.

**Shiho:** Yuuki, how does that sound?

**Shiho:** Hm. I think Yuuki might be sleeping. He seemed tired earlier today.

**Haru:** I think we are all very tired from the trip. 

**Haru:** I hope he’s resting well.

**Shiho:** Me too.

**Shiho:** Let’s just work out the details privately so we don’t wake him up. I can fill him in later.

The last message had been sent about an hour prior. Mishima decided to call Shiho directly and talk through whatever plans she had made with Haru.

It rang twice before Shiho answered. “Yuuki?”

“Hi. Sorry I missed all those messages earlier.”

“It’s okay. Were you asleep? You still sound really tired…”

He yawned, not even performatively. He really was lacking sleep. “Yeah. The jet lag must really be…” Another yawn. “...affecting me.”

“Do you need to sleep some more?”

“Mm-mm.” 

She giggled softly. “Is that a yes?”

“Mmm no. I wanna talk t’you.”

“Okay then.” Shiho was sitting on her bed, and started to adjust her position into a more comfortable one. She put a pillow underneath her as she turned onto her stomach. “So, do you think you’ll be more rested tomorrow after school?”

“Hm. D’pends. Maybe if Mr. Hiruta doesn’t catch me sleeping in class.”

“He’s probably the only teacher who’d let you sleep, anyway.”

“Ha. Yeah. Probably.” Mishima tossed himself onto his own bed. “Anyway. Even if I don’t get enough sleep I’d like to see you and Haru tomorrow. What did you two plan?”

“Oh!” Shiho straightened up. “Well, I suggested the bakery you and I always go to, but Haru said she knows this really great coffee place!”

_ Beep beep. _

Mishima sighed. “Sorry, one second. I’m getting another call I think.” His phone showed an incoming call from Ren Amamiya. After a second of contemplating what to do about it, he silenced it and put his phone back up to his ear. “Sorry. Scam call.”

“I used to get those all the time. You should just block their number.”

“Yeah. I should.” He turned onto his side. “So, anyway. Coffee?”

“Yes! Oh, and I already asked. It’s not in Yongen.”

“Good. Well then, that sounds really nice. We all could probably use some time to just… get everything out.” 

He glanced over at his PC and thought about his website. For the briefest of seconds, he considered the possibility of coming clean about his secret identity to Haru and Shiho, but just as quickly he shut it down. There was no way either of them would take that lightly. He tried to shut out those thoughts and focus on talking to his girlfriend for the rest of the night.

**x x x x x**

Meanwhile, the Phantom Thieves were at their hideout in the Leblanc attic. Ren was on the phone, waiting for Mishima to pick up, while the others were waiting to listen in on the conversation.

The call went to voicemail and Ren hung up before he could leave a message. “Voicemail.” He informed his expectant teammates.

“Ugh.” Ann groaned and pushed herself up from her seat to pace around the room. “This is unbelievable! He’s been dodging all of your calls! Mishima is such a jerk! How does Shiho not see that?”

Ryuji gently took Ann’s arm to stop her pacing and calm her down. “It’s okay, Ann. I’m sure she’ll come around soon.”

“One can only hide their true nature for so long.” Yusuke commented.

Ann sat next to Ryuji on the sofa and hung her head, helpless. “But… I miss her…” A comforting hand rubbed Ann’s back and she turned to see Futaba’s sympathetic expression. “I’m sorry guys. I’m okay. Really. This was the plan and I’m gonna stick with it. I just wish there was some other way to get through to him.”

“I’m afraid there might not be…” Makoto spoke. “Short of changing his heart, anyway.”

Ryuji turned to Morgana. “Are we sure this asshole doesn’t have a palace? I mean, he’s killing people!”

Morgana shook his head. “He can’t have a palace if he has a persona. He can’t even have a shadow for that matter.”

“This is bullshit!” Ann placed a hand on Ryuji’s knee to calm him down. He attempted to take a deep breath.

Futaba made a grumbling noise and Ren turned to her. “What is it, Futaba?”

“Do you think…” She tried to figure out how to correctly form her sentence. “Do you think we’re overreacting? I mean, no one has had a mental shutdown since before you all left for the school trip. Maybe he’s… stopped?”

“Don’t be so naive, Futaba.” Ryuji clenched his fists. “We can’t just rest on our morals now!”

Yusuke leaned forward. “Don’t you mean…?”

Ryuji ignored him. “If someone else dies and we didn’t try to stop it then we’re just as guilty as he is!”

Futaba frowned. “You’re right… Still. Maybe there’s something bigger going on right now that we aren’t seeing?”

Makoto turned to her. “What do you mean? Like what?”

She shrugged. “I don’t really know. I can’t put my finger on it. I just… have this feeling. There’s something we’re missing.”

Everyone sat in silence for a few moments before Ren finally piped up. “Hey. Morgana? Is there any way to get rid of someone’s power to wield a persona?”

Morgana thought over his knowledge of the metaverse. “I’ve never heard of something like that happening, but it doesn’t sound impossible. I guess maybe if their desires became so distorted that they formed a palace.”

“I see.” Ren nodded and grew quiet yet again.

“Why? What’s up?” Ryuji spoke. “You got a plan?”

“Maybe…”


	11. I Walk The Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I keep a close watch on this heart of mine_
> 
> _I keep my eyes wide open all the time_
> 
> _I keep the ends out for the tie that binds_
> 
> _Because you're mine, I walk the line”_

Shiho and Mishima met up with each other after classes ended the next day. “Hi, Yuuki!” She smiled and bent down to kiss Mishima’s cheek. 

He intertwined his fingers with hers and they started walking together. “Are we just meeting Haru out front?”

“Yep. She said she already has a ride or something. I guess she called a cab?”

“Oh. Okay.” 

The couple walked together and arrived at the front of the school. They saw Haru standing in front of a town car, next to a man in a driver’s uniform. Shiho and Mishima looked at each other, both equally puzzled, and then approached Haru.

“Haru?” Shiho examined the car further. “I thought you were going to order a cab. You didn’t have to do all this.”

“Hm?” Haru looked at her driver and then back at her friends. “Oh. Oh, no. This is Sasaki-san! He’s my family’s driver.”

Mishima turned to Haru. “Your family’s—?”

“Nice to meet you!” Shiho dropped Mishima’s hand and bowed. He followed suit, and Sasaki bowed as well.

“My apologies, Sasaki-san! These are the friends I was telling you about. This is Shiho Suzui.” She gestured at Shiho. “And this is Yuuki Mishima.” 

“Hi.” He offered weakly.

“They’re both in the year below me. We met on the school trip to Hawaii.” 

Haru smiled brightly and her driver stayed silent. He simply opened the door to the passenger compartment in the back. Her face fell slightly and she got in. Shiho and Mishima got in after her, and once they were settled inside, Sasaki abruptly shut the door on them. 

“I already told him where we’re headed.” Haru informed them.

Shiho buckled her seat belt and tapped Mishima to remind him to do the same. He did. “Where  _ are _ we headed by the way?” 

“It’s a small coffee shop by my house. They serve outstanding coffee! Plus, they have over 200 different varieties of tea _ and _ delicious pastries that are baked fresh every morning!”

“That sounds amazing!” She turned to Mishima, who was staring out the window, half-listening. “Hey. You with us?”

“Huh? Oh.” He shook his head to ground himself back in reality. “Y-Yeah. Fresh pastries. Sounds good. Um. Do they have éclairs?”

Haru’s eyes lit up. “They do! They’re fantastic. My personal favorite, though, is the mille-feuille!”

“What is that?”

She explained what the pastry was, and for the rest of the ride, she went over each individual pastry that is offered on Tuesday afternoons. As she was explaining what fillings are commonly found in religieuse, Sasaki parked in front of the café. He opened the passenger compartment door, and the three friends filed out. 

Haru bowed slightly. “Thank you very much.” Mishima and Shiho did the same and Sasaki got back in the car without saying a word. “After you.” She led the two into the café, and soon after they were seated at a booth.

Not much longer after the gang had placed their orders, the waitress brought their drinks. Haru got her usual, nilgiri tea. Meanwhile, Shiho settled on trying something new and ended up getting the hibiscus tea. As for Mishima, there was such an overwhelming number of varieties, and he hadn’t even heard of most of them. He asked the waitress what her favorite was and she told him he might enjoy the black tea. Evidently, he wasn’t the biggest fan of it, and after taking his first sip, he reached for the sugar to put a couple scoops in and offset the bitter taste.

For a while, none of them said a word. It was as if there was an unspoken agreement to not bring up anything unpleasant and they were all at a loss on what to talk about. Haru’s phone ringtone ended up breaking the silence. She glanced at the incoming call which read “Sugimura.” After a moment of hesitation, she silenced it.

“My apologies.” She mumbled.

“Who was that?” Shiho asked.

Another moment of hesitation. “That was… my fiance.”

“Your…?”

“Fiance?” Mishima interrupted, unable to hide the disbelief in his voice. Haru nodded, her eyes fixated on the center of her teacup. “Oh. Well. Um… is everything okay? Do you… did you need to take that?”

“I’d rather not…” Haru’s voice was softer and smaller than usual.

“Haru.” Shiho waited for her friend to look at her. She did. “You know, if something is going on, you can tell us. This is a safe space, right?” Haru nodded. “If it makes you more comfortable, I can tell you guys about my thing. I can just break the ice, and maybe your stuff won’t seem as scary.”

“Shiho, you don’t have to…”

Shiho smiled warmly. “I want to.” 

Once again, her infectious smile rubbed off on the others, and they smiled as well. She took a sip of tea to relax her nerves and began. 

“Ann told me she doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. She didn’t really explain why. All she did was mumble something about things changing and then… she left. I’ve sent her a few text messages but she ignores all of them.”

“Shiho…” Mishima didn’t know what more to say than that. First, he felt angry that Ann would cut Shiho off in such a rude and abrupt way. Ultimately, though, he was angry at himself for likely being the reason Ann would stop talking to Shiho in the first place.

Haru took Shiho’s hand. “I’m so sorry this is happening to you.”

“It’s fine.” Shiho gave Haru a nod to show that she appreciated her gesture, and then took a sip of her tea.

“It’s really not fine.” There was anger in Mishima’s voice now as he spoke. “She can’t just ignore you like that. You guys were best friends for years and all of sudden she drops you for no reason?”

“I’m sure she has a reason…”

“I agree with Yuuki.” Haru interjected. “She can’t just leave things like that between you. Besides, if you two had an opportunity to talk, maybe you could work things out. But if she doesn’t even answer your texts… that’s not very fair.”

Shiho frowned and kept her gaze fixated on her tea. “I know. I’m just going to give her some time and space. I’m sure she’s going through stuff, so it’s fine. It’s just a little sad.”

“Of course.” Haru and Mishima shared a look of mutual sympathy for their friend. They knew one of them had to speak up now.

“Um, so.” Without thinking about it, Shiho held onto her boyfriend’s hand and forced a smile. “I’m going to be okay. We don’t have to talk about me anymore.”

Mishima squeezed Shiho’s hand, and she squeezed it back. He turned to Haru. “Do… you want to talk about anything?”

“Oh! Um.” Haru glanced down at her phone. “I probably should tell you both…”

They looked at Haru as she gathered the courage to share her story. “My father is forcing me to marry someone.”

“Forcing you? Like against your will?” Mishima tried to manage his temper, but failed. “What the hell? Why?”

“It’s good for his image. Supposedly.” There was a sadness in Haru’s voice. It was clear that she had been bearing this weight for a long time. “He owns and runs a very successful corporation, but he wants to enter the world of politics. He thinks if we get close with my fiance’s family then he’ll be able to do that.”

Mishima clenched his free hand into a fist. “That’s so messed up.”

“Oh.” Something in Shiho’s head clicked. “Does your father own Big Bang Burger?”

Haru nodded. “Yes…”

“I see. He’s the one who's been in the news a lot lately, right? For mistreating his employees?”

Mishima felt lost. “Who?”

“The CEO of Okumura Foods. I knew you had the same last name, but I never considered that he could’ve been your father. He sounds really terrible.”

“He wasn’t always.” Haru sighed, wistful. “I’ve tried my best to reason with him, but it’s no use. I’m supposed to listen to my father and do what he says. Then once I’m married, I have to listen to what my husband says.”

“That’s awful, Haru.” Shiho sounded choked up. “I’m so sorry.”

The silence set in again, and Mishima debated with himself on whether or not he should say what he said next. “We have to do something.” 

“There’s nothing anyone can do…” Haru was completely defeated.

“No. There is. Listen, this is actually what I wanted to tell you both today. I—”

Haru’s phone rang. Sugimura again.

“My apologies.” Haru’s voice was colored with sadness and fear. “I should really answer him. Excuse me for one moment, please.”

She slid out of the booth and stepped outside to take the call, and while she was gone, Mishima’s rage started to fade. The anxiety over telling his best friend and girlfriend the truth about his other identity seemed like a mistake. He thought maybe he could just mention the website without mentioning his affiliation with it. 

“Hey? Yuuki? What’s wrong?” Shiho’s calm and concerned voice brought Mishima back in reality.

“Huh? N-Nothing. I mean… everything? I guess. I feel bad for Haru.”

“Me too.” She scooted in closer and leaned her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder. “Everything has gotten so crazy so quickly. I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Yeah…”

“But I’m glad I have you and Haru.” She smiled slightly. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Yeah. Yeah, me neither.”

Shiho kissed him on the cheek once before snuggling in closer. He started to put his arm around her when Haru came back inside.

“I’m sorry. I’m afraid I have to leave now.” She looked dejected and it was possible she had been crying, but her face was too well hidden.

“Oh.” Shiho disentangled herself from Mishima and sat up straighter. “Why? What happened?”

“My father is doing a press conference to announce his candidacy for the election. I didn’t know it was happening today, but I have to go home and watch it with my fiance and his family. So I must be going now. Here.” Haru pulled out enough yen to cover the cost of their bill, a cab ride home, and then some. “Once again, I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly. I’ll message you both later tonight.” She grabbed her bag and hurried out of the café.

Mishima pushed his tea further away from him. “Should we leave too, then?”

Before Shiho could answer, one of the waiters walked up to their table. “Were you saying you wanted to watch the press conference?”

“Huh? Um…”

“We could play it on the TV if you want. You’re the only customers in here right now so we might as well. I can’t take much more of this boring music, either.”

“S-Sure. Yeah, that’s fine.”

The waiter walked off and tuned the TV to a news channel showing footage of an empty podium and a title reading:  **KUNIKAZU OKUMURA PRESS CONFERENCE STANDBY.**

Seeing the name written out struck fear into Mishima. It was the target he decided on during his last trip to mementos. He was unable to even find the target in mementos, and he retreated before he could, but that was definitely the person he was looking for. It all started to click for him. Kunikazu Okumura was Haru’s dad, and he was about to announce his political campaign live on television.

It was only yesterday that Mishima was in the metaverse, ready to execute someone he knew hardly anything about. The very idea that he came so close to murdering his friend’s father made him feel queasy. He shifted in the booth seat uncomfortably.

Shiho laid a hand on his leg to calm him down. “Are you feeling okay?”

He gulped down his feelings of guilt and nodded silently, eyes fixed on the feed of the conference.

Two security guards escorted Okumura to the empty podium and as soon as he became visible, there was a cacophony of camera shutter sounds going off and reporters clamoring to be heard.

Okumura stood silently in front of the podium, waiting for the noise to die down. A possible associate of his gestured for the audience to be quiet before Okumura could proceed.

“Thank you all for coming. I would like to first say how grateful I am to all of my colleagues and employees for allowing me the opportunity to make this announcement today. I would not be where I am today without any of you. Which is why I want to give back to my company and all of the people who have helped make Okumura Foods what it is. I am here to announce that I am adding myself to the running for the governorship of Tokyo.”

Several dozens of camera flashes went off and multiple reporters spoke over each other to get their questions in. “Okumura-san! Okumura-san!”

He answered a few questions for a few different publications, but none of them were hard-hitting or made any references to the maltreatment of his company’s workers. Mostly he was informing who would be in charge of what within his company while he worked on his campaign. 

After some time, the brief conference came to a close.

“That is all the questions I will be taking at this time. Thank you all for—”

Okumura stopped short for a moment and his eyes began to glaze over. He clutched his chest and started choking and gasping for air. The crowd’s worried murmuring was only background noise to Okumura’s pained gagging. 

His eyes rolled back into his head and a black ooze spilled out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. He collapsed to the ground, and the crowd erupted into a loud panic. The feed for the conference was quickly cut and a “technical difficulties” screen showed up on the television.

“Holy shit.” The waiter in the café who turned the TV on, hurriedly searched for the remote to turn it off again. “Sorry about that guys. That was so insane! I did not expect something like that to happen. That’s live TV I guess, huh?” He turned to Mishima and Shiho who were stunned silent. “I’ll uh, I’ll bring you guys your check.”

Mishima and Shiho didn’t speak much during the cab ride back to their separate homes. The driver dropped Shiho off at her place first, and she and Mishima shared a hug. She whispered “text me” to him before getting out of the car and going inside her house.

Once she was inside, he pulled out his phone to look for any news updates on the conference or an explanation of what happened. There was very little concrete information. There were some sources that speculated that Okumura was taken to a hospital and was currently in ICU. Beyond that, all that his searches yielded were graphic photos of Okumura just seconds before the feed was cut off. He stared in horror and was unable to look away.

“Hey, kid!”

The driver’s aggressive tone led Mishima to infer that that was not the first time he tried to get his attention.

“Ah, uh, sorry.”

“This is your place, isn’t it?”

He looked out the window and saw his apartment complex. “Y-Yes. It is. Thank you.” He took out all the money that Haru had given him and Shiho and handed it to the driver. “I don’t need change. Thank you again.” 

He scrambled out of the car and the driver sped off just as Mishima barely got out of the way.

The rain had hardly let up by that point in the night so Mishima tried to get inside as quickly as possible. He opened up a new chat thread to send a message to just Haru. He started to type up a message several times but kept deleting each draft. Finally, he sent a short text to her.

**Yuuki:** Thinking of you. I’m here if you need anything.

He locked his phone and put it away before he had any time to regret or overthink his message. Once he got to his room, he lied down on his bed to think, eventually falling asleep for the night.

**x x x x x**

Haru didn’t come back to school for a whole week.

For the first few days after the press conference, the news outlets had very little to report on Okumura’s condition. Many self-titled experts and doctors came forward to hypothesize what might’ve happened to him, and when he’d be able to recover. There were so many rumors that when the news finally broke that Kunikazu Okumura was proclaimed dead, most people didn’t believe it.

“Whoa… Dude… Dude!” Ryuji nudged Ren and showed him the article he had pulled up on his phone. “Do you see this shit? Is this real?”

“Lemme see that.” Ann leaned across the table to take Ryuji’s phone from him. “Whoa.” She repeated.

The Phantom Thieves were all at Leblanc for non-thieves related business, but the breaking news quickly shifted their conversation into more serious territory.

“What? What’s it say?” Morgana tried to stretch his neck up higher to be able to read.

Ann read the headline aloud. “Kunikazu Okumura, President and CEO of Okumura Foods, Proclaimed Dead.”

“Does it specify the cause of death?” Makoto questioned.

“Um...” Ann scrolled down further and skimmed along the words before finding the answer. “Okumura’s cause of death was determined to be a stroke, although he was known to be in impeccable health, despite his age.”

“Hm.” Yusuke thought to himself. “That’s rather odd.”

“A stroke, huh? That’s the same bullshit that the principal gave us about Kamoshida, and that bastard was a goddamn olympic athlete!”

“You don’t think…?” Futaba looked at Ren, worried.

“No.” Ren spoke up. “That’s not what this is.”

“But, Ren…” Ann tried to reason with him, but he shut her out.

“Do you guys really think Mishima would kill Haru’s dad? Haru is his friend. You saw them in Hawaii. They seem really close. Mishima would never do that.”

The rest of the thieves refrained from adding anything more to the conversation. Ren wanted to drop it, and so it was dropped. Makoto took the liberty of changing the subject to midterm prep.

When Haru did finally come back to school, she did her best to isolate herself from everyone. There were students constantly whispering as she walked past and every once in a while, a first year would approach her to give her their condolences. She would smile and thank them but elected to not show much more emotion than that.

During lunchtime, Haru stole away to the school roof to get away from all the sympathetic looks and “I’m so sorry for your loss” comments from her peers. She shut the door behind her and took a moment to collect her breath and thoughts, letting the fresh air hit her skin. 

The roof was quiet. The lunch she shared with Shiho and Mishima a week ago felt more like a lifetime ago. She hadn’t spoken to either of them since the café date, and she worried that sharing her true emotions over her father’s death would scare them off. They were both so kind to her and she enjoyed the time they spent together, but it’s not like they had been friends for several years, or even months. Haru decided it was best to give them an out so they didn’t have to deal with her. It would be best for everyone if she grieved in peace. Still, she felt sad thinking about the times they did all hang out. 

She leaned against one of the student desks and started to reminisce when she saw her vegetable garden, wilted.

“Oh… Oh, no…” Haru whispered to herself and rushed over to the carrots and tomatoes she was planting on the rooftop. They hadn’t been watered since before the Hawaii trip, and now they were beyond salvation.

The longer she examined the crops, the more devastated she felt. She scrambled to look closely at each individual vegetable to see if there was any way to save it, but it was no use. Her eyes started to well up with tears and once she confirmed that they all had, in fact, died, the painful sobbing that she had been holding in for the past week finally erupted out of her.

Her breathing was uneven and she couldn’t stop herself from weeping, despite her best efforts. The door to the rooftop opened, and Shiho and Mishima rushed over to her. 

“Haru? Haru! Are you okay?” Shiho knelt down next to her and held her while she cried. “It’s going to be alright. Let it out.” Shiho rubbed Haru’s back while she clung to her shirt and tried to stop herself from crying.

“It… hurts…” Haru cried louder as Shiho rocked her gently.

“I know… I know.”

Mishima sat down close to the two of them. Haru didn’t completely stop crying for a couple minutes. It hit her in waves and when the sobs got softer, they’d come again at full force a second later. 

Shiho and Mishima stayed with her and stayed silent until she was done. She eventually steadied her breath and disentangled herself from Shiho. She wiped away the remaining tears from her eyes and looked away from the two of them. “I’m so sorry you had to see that…”

“It’s okay.” Mishima spoke quietly, but kindly.

“I do not know what came over me.”

Shiho looked over at the dead vegetable garden and frowned. She looked back at Haru. “It helps to cry like that sometimes. You shouldn’t have to hold it in.”

“I haven’t cried at all since seeing the press conference. I’ve been feeling… so… numb.” Haru glanced at her garden as well. “I think everything I was supposed to feel just hit me all at once.”

“That makes sense. You’re going through so much, it’s impossible to process all of that right away.”

“Yes. You’re right…” Haru smoothed out the wrinkles on her skirt and gave Shiho a small smile. “Thank you.” She turned to Mishima. “Both of you. I apologize I haven’t called or texted. Things have been so overwhelming…”

“It’s okay.” Mishima reassured her. “You don’t need to explain anything. We understand.”

“Thank you.” Haru lifted herself off the ground and steadied herself. She dusted herself off and grabbed her bag. “I appreciate both of you for being here for me. I think I need a moment alone, though, now. I will call you both soon.” She bowed and left the rooftop.

Shiho scooted closer to Mishima. “I feel so awful for her. I wish there was more we could do.” 

Mishima didn’t say anything. He was staring at the garden himself, seemingly entranced. “Yuuki? Yuuki, you okay?”

“I need to tell you something…” Mishima struggled to speak, eyes still fixated on the brown and withered plants.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Shiho was unable to mask the unease in her voice.

“Um. I don’t really know where to start exactly.”

“That’s okay.” Shiho took Mishima’s hand in hers. “Just start from the beginning.”

He gulped and tried to silence all the impulses telling him to not continue. “Okay. Well. It’s about Haru’s dad. Kind of. It’s also about Kamoshida… and… um… me, too, I guess…”

“What? What are you talking about? What about them?”

“I think I know how Haru’s dad died. And… I know that because I know how Kamoshida died.”

“Right. They both died of a stroke, right? What does that have to do with you, though?”

He inhaled deeply before explaining. “They didn’t die of a stroke. They were murdered.”

“What do you mean? Wouldn’t there be evidence? Wouldn’t there be a trial?”

“No. Because of the method used, there’s no way to be traced.”

Shiho shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t get it. Yuuki, you’re scaring me. What are you saying? How do you know this?”

“Because I did it. I killed Kamoshida.”

“Yuuki… You…” Shiho moved away from Mishima slightly. “When? How?”

“It’s kind of… difficult to explain. Basically there’s this app on my phone that can take a person into another world where you’re inside a person’s heart, basically.”

“Wh-What? You’re not making any sense. Is this a joke? Because it’s really not funny.”

“No! No, it’s not a joke. I swear.” Mishima pulled out his phone and showed Shiho the metaverse app. “I use this. But I’m not the only one who has it. Takamaki does too. She and Amamiya and Sakamato and I think a few others. I’m also pretty sure that Goro Akechi has access to it, too.”

“Ann has this too? And…  _ Goro Akechi?  _ They all go into people’s hearts? Just to kill people?”

“Well, no, that’s not… I’m not explaining this right. I’d have to take you there for you to really understand it. But, basically, I think Akechi is the one who killed Haru’s dad.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I saw him. I mean, I didn’t see him actually  _ doing  _ it, but I saw him there and he mentioned his name.”

Shiho sat still with her brain working in overdrive to make sense of everything Mishima just told her. 

Mishima waited for her to speak until he continued. Eventually she did. “So. Did you see Goro Akechi before or after you murdered Kamoshida?”

“Oh. After. Kamoshida was the first one but, I—”

“What?” Shiho’s voice started to tremble. “F-First one? Are you telling me that you’ve…  _ killed _ other people?”

“Yes, but—”

“Yes?!” She shot up and moved away from Mishima. “You’re… You…”

“No, Shiho, listen. They were bad people. Just like Kamoshida. Worse, even. I don’t like doing it, but I… Look, I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you any of this sooner. I should have. I should have told you right away. I just was afraid and I didn’t know how and I—”

She swiped her bag and hugged it close to her body. “I need to go now. I’m sorry. I… I can’t do this.”

“Shiho—”

“Stop. Please. I… I don’t want to see you right now.”

“Wait! I—”

“ _ Please! _ ” She shrieked loud enough to hurt her voice.

Mishima was stunned silent for a moment, then nodded. He put both of his hands up in surrender. Shiho nodded as well, and turned on her heel to leave quickly before Mishima could see her fighting back tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (jason mendoza voice): oh, ariana, we're really in it now


	12. Young God

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“But do you feel like a young god?_
> 
> _You know the two of us are just young gods_
> 
> _And we'll be flying through the streets with the people underneath_
> 
> _And they're running, running, running”_

Shiho stopped talking to Mishima completely, and Haru hadn’t reached out either. At least not to him. Several days went by and he was still getting radio silence. It was to be expected, though, and Mishima wouldn’t have blamed Shiho if she never spoke to him again. She was better off not being connected to him, anyway. He figured he might as well lean into his other identity of Umbra and keep doing the only thing he was really good at.

After a few days of leaving the Virtual Vigilante website unmonitored, he pulled it up on his phone to look for a new request. There were several comments thanking Umbra for getting rid of Okumura. He cringed as he scrolled by each comment, hoping to find a legitimate request. Most of the requests seemed petty and inconsequential, but it was difficult to tell who was actually being serious.

It took nearly an hour to filter through all of the requests and find one he actually wanted to fulfill.

_ I work under a corrupt politician. I hate him and what he stands for but I have no power to go against him. He’s running for prime minister right now and if he wins, he will ruin this country. We all saw that you took out Okumura. You have to do this too. I need this. Japan needs this. We need you to help. Please. _

_ -Anonymous _

There was hardly any clarification on what exactly was corrupt about this person, but that made little difference to Mishima. He instantly committed the target in question’s name to memory, and navigated to the metaverse in pursuit of him.

Umbra stood at the entrance of Mementos and traveled to the first floor below. His plan was to conserve his energy as much as possible, and not engage in battle with any shadows unless absolutely necessary.

After multiple trips to Mementos, Umbra learned that shadows on the upper floors would run away from him if they saw him first. He figured it was because they were too weak and afraid of taking him on. 

Today, things were different. He was ambushed and knocked down by the first shadow he came across. A boisterous laugh roared out of the opposing shadow, mocking him for being downed by such a weak enemy. 

Umbra struggled to sit up, disoriented. He was unharmed, save for a bruised ego. Wasting no time, he fervently ripped his mask off and summoned his persona.

“Mayari!”

There was a whooshing sound behind him, but Mayari failed to apparate. 

“What the…?” Umbra muttered to himself and looked around, desperately searching for his persona.

The shadow across from him charged forward and knocked him down yet again. He shouted for his persona once more and still nothing. 

“Die!” It tackled Umbra while he was down and laughed, waiting for a counterattack that would never come. 

His energy was almost completely drained at this point. He feebly reached down at his side to pull out his melee weapon, but instead grasped at thin air. “Why…?”

Umbra looked down and saw that he was no longer in his typical metaverse attire. His clothes changed back to his regular outfit. He started to become frantic, his fight or flight response kicking into overdrive. Clumsily, he scrambled his way back up to his feet and ran away from the shadow. It was still too preoccupied with its own gloating to actually notice that Umbra was no longer there.

He traveled back up the stalled escalator to the Mementos entrance. Panic set in more and more until he pulled out his phone and was granted some relief to see the metanav app still there. With a quick command, he was back in his room moments later, left with only his thoughts.

None of the previous events made any sense to him. Although he had been using the metaverse for months now and became extremely skilled at using his persona, he admittedly knew very little about the metaverse itself and why it worked the way it did. He didn’t know where to begin to even research it, and he figured it didn’t matter as long as he knew how to use it. But now there was a problem that he didn’t know how to solve. Why couldn’t he summon his persona?

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He pulled out his phone again and went to the metanav. He spoke into it, voice hollow and shaky.

“Yuuki Mishima…”

_ Candidate found. _

His blood went cold and his body froze. His grip around his phone loosened, and it clattered to the ground. The words rang in his ears and induced a state of catatonia in him. He fell back onto his bed and lied there for the rest of the night, unable to move.

For the next few weeks, Mishima was in a foggy haze. Mentally and emotionally. Some days he had the strength to drag himself out of bed and go to school, but most days he would skip school and lie in bed for the whole day. He’d switch back and forth from his apps, not even realizing when the sun set. 

Sometimes he’d stave off his hunger with instant noodles or some other processed junk food. Other times, he was able to gather enough energy to shower or bathe, but wouldn’t be able to again for several more days.

One night, late into the evening, Mishima noticed himself opening up an app that he just closed. He was painfully disinterested in everything, and grasped at anything that could possibly occupy his mind, but his efforts were futile.

By and by, he found himself on his phone’s notes app. He stared at the intimidating blank screen for several minutes until finally he started to craft a message.

_ Citizens of Tokyo and those further on, _

_ Due to unforeseen circumstances out of our control, the requests made on this site will cease to be acknowledged or fulfilled. This site is now effectively obsolete. _

_ -Umbra _

He read over the message once to make sure there were no typos, then immediately went to the Virtual Vigilante website to publish it.

**x x x x x**

Several long and loud vibrations coming from Mishima’s phone awoke him in the middle of the night. In a haze, he felt around his nightstand to grab his phone and check the notification.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** Good evening.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** I am contacting you to request that you meet with me in person.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** I trust you have no plans tomorrow?

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** It is a Sunday, so you don’t have school.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** And I imagine no one else is particularly fond of your company, yes?

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** If that is the case, meet me in the alley behind the arcade in Shibuya. On Central Street.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** I will be waiting there at noon.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** I look forward to us meeting.

Mishima tried to send a reply to ask who was texting him, but the message failed to send.

“Of course…” He sighed and shut his phone off before turning over and going back to sleep.

The next morning, he checked his phone again but there were no new messages or texts. He looked over the text from the unknown number again to try and figure out who might’ve sent it. There wasn’t anybody he could think of who would actually want to see him right now. Shiho and Haru hadn’t spoken to him in weeks and he didn’t expect either of them to contact him ever again. The same could be said of Amamiya and all of his friends. 

The speech pattern of the mysterious contact wasn’t familiar to him, either. They were overly formal and polite, but seemed to have sinister motives. It occurred to Mishima that it could be someone from the SIU or the police force luring him to a specific location to arrest him.

He didn’t care if that was the case or not. If it was, he deserved it. If not, it at least gave him something new to do.

It was nearing noon already, so Mishima managed to pull himself out of bed and get dressed into something half decent. Just before heading out, he grabbed a coat to combat the November chill, an umbrella to shield him from the rain he could hear battering down even from indoors, and his phone.

Once he got to the Central Street stop, he emerged from the train station and looked along the different facades of shops and restaurants, trying to recall where the arcade was located. When he found it, he peeked around the corner and walked down the alley, anxious over who was waiting for him there. He could barely hold in his disdain when he saw who it was.

“Goro fucking Akechi…” Mishima laughed derisively.

“Now, now. Is that the proper regard to treat your senpai with?” Akechi’s accompanying smile was disgustingly saccharine. 

“What do you want?” His temper and patience were short.

“I’d just like to talk. I want to discuss a few things. Maybe even get to know you better.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, right. Why? What’s your end goal?”

“I’m sure you’ve felt very isolated recently. I thought you could use a friend.” 

Akechi took a step closer to Mishima, who instantly took a step back. “Fuck off. I don’t want anything to do with you. You ruined my life.”

“Me? However did I do that?”

“I know you killed my friend’s father. It had to have been you! You’re a monster.”

He smirked and Mishima’s stomach turned. “Mishima-san… I understand your emotions are volatile right now… Why don’t I buy you a meal? There is a diner nearby, isn’t there?”

“No. I don’t want you to buy anything for me with your blood money!”

Akechi responded with his signature charming half-suppressed laugh. “I assure you, I wouldn’t be paying with anything of the sort. I am somewhat of a celebrity, you know.”

“Yeah. I know.” Mishima’s already short patience was wearing thin.

“You don’t like me very much, do you? Can I ask why?”

“Why?” He was unable to hide his incredulous tone. “You’re a murderer. You kill people with families and friends and lives. You have no regard for other people’s feelings or emotions and you don’t even give it a second thought, because you know there are no consequences for you. You act like you’re some fucking god who gets to decide who lives and who dies based on your own warped sense of justice. You just want everyone to love you and praise you and worship you! I hate you!”

“Mm…” Akechi crossed his arms and chuckled. “These are your feelings towards me?”

Mishima nodded and looked away, slightly embarrassed from his emotional display. “Yes.”

“That description sounds like someone else I know.”

“Yeah, well…” He pulled his coat tighter across his body to trap in some heat. “I hate myself, too, so…”

“Yes. That much is clear.”

He scoffed again and looked right at Akechi. “Are we done here? Can I leave?”

“By all means.” Akechi made a gesture with his hand as if giving Mishima permission to leave. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”

With no further acknowledgment, Mishima turned his back to Akechi and walked back to the train station.

Akechi watched him leave, and once he confirmed that he was out of sight, he pulled out his phone and sent a text to the Phantom Thieves group chat of which he was now a part of.

**Akechi:** I would like to ask that we all reconvene at the hideout.

**Ryuji:** Now?

**Ryuji:** Dude, some of us are busy.

**Akechi:** It is important.

**Akechi:** I have information and I am quite certain you’d like to hear it.

**Ren:** I’ll let Sojiro know you’ll all be coming over.

**Ryuji:** Fine. Whatever.

It took awhile for everyone to travel to Yongen, but once everyone arrived, Akechi took it upon himself to conduct the meeting.

“Thank you all for agreeing to come on such short notice.”

Ryuji rolled his eyes. “Didn’t give us much of a choice.”

“Yes, well, like I said, I have some intel you might be interested in hearing.”

“What is it?” Ann was wary of Akechi and his intentions, but she did her best to be polite towards him.

“As I’m sure you all remember, we came to an agreement that if you taught me how this “metaverse” works, that I would assist you in finding a new target. I believe I have done just that.”

“Really?” Makoto asked, skeptical. “Who would that be?”

“Yuuki Mishima.”

No one spoke. A few of the Thieves glanced over at Ren, but he remained expressionless.

“He doesn’t have a palace.” Ren stated matter-of-factly.

“He’s right.” Yusuke agreed. “We’ve checked before, haven’t we? Even just stating his name in the metanav yields zero results.”

“I’m aware.” Akechi prepared to relay his deductions. “However, I think that might no longer be true. There was a new announcement on that little website of his last night. It stated that he would no longer be taking requests. I wondered why that might’ve been? Surely he hadn’t grown a conscience overnight? No, I thought, there must be something more.”

“Get to the damn point.” Ryuji groaned.

“I’m getting to one.” He tucked his bangs behind his ear as he continued. “I came to the conclusion that Mishima-kun might have lost his ability to summon his… what did you all call it? Persona?”

“That would make sense…” Morgana mused. “A persona is born from the strength of one’s heart, and… Well, to put it lightly, Mishima has seemed to lose his way.”

Futaba pulled out her phone to open the metanav. “You think he has a palace now?”

“I don’t just  _ think  _ he does. I know he does. Try it if you don’t believe me.”

Futaba hesitantly spoke into her phone. “Um… Yuuki Mishima?”

_ Candidate found. _

The rest of the Phantom Thieves reacted in varying degrees of shock, unsure of what to actually say about the discovery.

“We still need the other two keywords.” Ren finally spoke and turned to Akechi. “Any idea what those are?”

“Well, I was able to deduce one of them. His… distortion?”

“What is it?”

“It did take a little more effort and inference on my part to figure that one out, but I was able to discover that one as well.”

“Okay.” Ryuji didn’t even attempt to hide his dislike towards Akechi. “Can you tell us the damn keyword?”

He chuckled softly before saying the keyword into Futaba’s phone. “Temple.”

_ Candidate found. _

“Whoa…” Futaba muttered to herself. “Now we just need one more.”

“I apologize. I wasn’t able to come up with that one.”

“Hmm…” Ann was deep in thought. “All we need is the location. What could that be?”

“The location is usually where the Palace ruler’s distortion is born.” Makoto informed the Thieves. “Any ideas, guys?”

Ren sighed. “I think I know where it would be.”

**x x x x x**

“We shouldn’t be up here…” Makoto stood in the doorway to the Shujin Academy rooftop. “It’s off-limits and there isn’t even any faculty here today.”

The rest of the Thieves were already on the roof. Yusuke, Futaba, and Akechi took note of the unfamiliar surroundings. 

“This place looks totally deserted.” Futaba commented. 

Ann agreed. “Yeah. Those vegetables look way dead, too.”

“I imagine this rooftop has seen better days.” Yusuke was fixated on the weeds growing out from between the floorboards.

“Wonder why his palace is even here. Seems kinda random.” Ryuji leaned against the wall and looked at Ren, expecting him to give an explanation.

Akechi spoke up instead. “It stands to reason. I admit I don’t know as much about this Mishima character as the rest of you do, but it feels symbolic of how he views himself. Above everyone else, perhaps?”

“Yeah…” Ren replied sadly and pulled out his phone without further delay.

“We doin’ this now, huh?” Ryuji spoke softly, and with consideration to how Ren was feeling towards the situation. Ren nodded and Ryuji knew to go ahead and say the keywords. “Yuuki Mishima. Shujin Academy Rooftop. Temple.”

_ Candidate found. Beginning navigation. _

Moments later, the Phantom Thieves were in the metaverse, right at the entrance of Yuuki Mishima’s palace.

Mishima’s palace took the form of a traditional zen Buddhist temple. The temple itself was large and grand, but laid out before it was a cemetery made up of several rows of plots with different inscriptions on their accompanying headstones.

Panther read the inscription on one of the stones. “Hideo Kurai. Hm. That name sounds kinda familiar.”

“As familiar as this one?” Skull beckoned Panther to come over and see the stone he was looking at. It was much larger and more ornate than the rest. The inscription read: Suguru Kamoshida.

“Wait a second.” Ann’s blood went cold as she looked beyond at all the rows of graves. “Are these all…?”

Fox stepped towards the pair and looked at all the gravestones closely. “All of these are likely victims that Umbra was responsible for killing.”

“Wow. Okay. That’s kind of terrifying. Can we just find his treasure as quickly as possible? This place is really giving me the creeps.”

“I don’t know if it’ll be that easy.” Mona spoke candidly. “This might be our hardest palace yet. I can sense strong shadows here, and his distortion feels strong as well.”

Oracle’s anxious grumbles concerned Queen. “Oracle? Is something wrong?”

“Um… I’m getting really insane readings on the cognition here and I don’t know what they mean. It doesn't look good though.”

A vicious wind blew through, resulting in loud chimes sounding that disoriented everyone, some almost losing their balance.

“What the hell was that?” Skull readjusted himself, knocking a fist against his leg as if to discipline it into being stronger. 

“We _ are _ technically in a cemetery.” Crow spoke softly enough for only Joker to hear. “I wonder…”

Before Crow could elaborate, a spirit appeared that was almost twice the size as the people standing before it. It’s boisterous voice echoed far beyond the surrounding area. “Turn back.” 

“This a shadow? We gotta fight this thing?”

“Not quite. It’s a cognition that’s morphed with a shadow, so it’s still dangerous. We need to be careful.” Mona clarified for Skull.

“But who is this supposed to be a cognition of?” Panther asked, but was interrupted by the shadow before anyone could answer.

“Leave before you regret it.” The cognitive spirit roared as Joker’s front line team stood up against it and prepared to engage in battle.

Any and all attacks that the Thieves used against it proved to be pointless. None of their physical attacks landed and all of the spells they used just got absorbed. While they were all draining their energy, the spirit cast its own ailments on everyone. They were constantly immobilized in fear and unable to attack or even defend themselves.

The spirit inflicted fear on almost everyone at once. Joker turned to Queen to ask her to remove the ailment, but her energy was fully depleted. “I’m so sorry, Joker. I can’t go on right now.”

Skull was no longer able to hold back his rage. “This is freaking impossible! Joker, we gotta get outta here right now. We can’t go up against this thing.” Joker said and did nothing other than stare at the overbearing spirit that showed no sign of slowing down. “Dude!”

Joker pulled out the metanav and put in the command to go back to the real world. Everyone was transported back to the Shujin roof, all visibly shaken and exhausted.

“That place is no joke.” Ryuji finally spoke. “How were we supposed to beat that thing?”

“I don’t know.” Ren admitted to himself. “We tried everything. Maybe we’re not strong enough yet.”

“How much more do we have to train? We didn’t stand a chance against that…” 

Akechi decided to break up the defeatist attitude among everyone. “We might as well take some time to come up with a more strategic plan of action. We don’t have a hard deadline to complete this mission, so we have plenty of time.”

“That is true…” Yusuke agreed. “He does not have access to his persona’s abilities, and he has ceased the operations on his website.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Ann tried to remain optimistic. “It’s not like he can do any more damage in the meantime.” 

“Precisely.” Akechi smiled. “So, why don’t we all depart for now, and come back at a later date to go over a different infiltration strategy?”

Everyone agreed that Akechi’s suggestion was the best plan of action they currently had, and went their separate ways for the night.

When Akechi got on the train to head back into Shibuya, he sent a text message to Mishima.

**Akechi:** Meet me in Kichijoji.

**Akechi:** I have a proposition for you.

**Mishima:** I’d rather die.

**Akechi:** I’ll make it worth your while.

**Akechi:** Humor me? Just this one last time.

**Akechi:** If you decide to reject my proposal, I will never contact you again.

**Mishima:** Sure whatever.

Akechi smirked after reading Mishima’s text, feeling quite pleased with himself.


	13. BADLANDS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“And all the kids cried out, "Please stop, you're scaring me"_
> 
> _I can't help this awful energy_
> 
> _God damn right, you should be scared of me_
> 
> _Who is in control?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR 1000+ HITS! It honestly means the world to me and I couldn't have even expected that much attention on an M/F rarepair made up of two minor characters lol. I hope you're enjoying this fic so far and that you'll like this next chapter. It's definitely one of my favorites!

Akechi was already on his way to the Kichijoji train station, so he ended up having to wait awhile before Mishima actually showed up. In an effort to not be seen or noticed, he was wearing large sunglasses and pretended to be engaged in a guide pamphlet.

By the third time he started scanning along the different bullet points of info in the pamphlet, Mishima approached him.

“There you are. I was beginning to worry that you wouldn’t show. How was the ride here?”

Mishima saw right through Akechi’s charade of politeness, and chose to waste no time on idle chit chat. “What do you want from me?” He looked around and saw dozens of people passing by along the promenade. “Is this where you wanted to talk?”

“Not exactly. Follow me.” Akechi beckoned Mishima to a secluded alleyway and he reluctantly followed.

“Nice glasses.” Mishima mocked.

Akechi ignored Mishima’s insult and adjusted his sunglasses. “I’ll just get straight to the point. The Phantom Thieves are planning to trigger a change of heart in you.” He paused, expecting Mishima to have some type of grand reaction, but he was silent and his expression remained unchanged. “A palace has formed in you, and the Phantom Thieves are already well on their way to securing an infiltration route and stealing your treasure. Are you aware of what the consequences of that would be?”

“Yeah. Or… I don’t know. Sorta.”

“You’d lose your free will. Your sense of justice. All of the choices you’ve made thus far will be tainted in your mind with guilt and regret. All because Amamiya and his friends believe their own sense of justice is ultimately right. Does that sound like something you’d want to happen?”

“I’m guessing you want me to say no…?”

He grew impatient. “Mishima-san… I don’t think you see the gravity of this situation.”

“Probably not, but I don’t care. I don’t care what they do. I don’t care what happens to me. I deserve whatever the universe decides is coming to me.”

Akechi stared at Mishima, who hadn’t made eye contact with him once and was currently staring down at his shoes. He tried to come up with a different tactic to persuade Mishima. “Of course, things could always go wrong. One single decision fueled entirely by emotion and malice could lead to your demise. That is what happened to you when you were a founding member of the Thieves?”

His voice was small. “Yes.”

“Amamiya seems to harbor negative feelings towards you. There’s no telling how he’d react upon seeing your shadow self in the metaverse. Who's to say he wouldn’t lose his sense for a brief moment and shoot you himself?”

“Let him.” He was still quiet, but Akechi heard his response clearly.

“The reason I asked you here today was to tell you that I can stop this from happening. The Phantom Thieves believe that I’m one of them now and that I want to help them further their agenda. I assure you, though, that my intentions are quite the opposite. I’ve been using the metaverse in the same way you have. Taking advantage of the ability to trigger mental shutdowns rather than a change of heart. Listen…” Akechi quickly surveyed their surroundings to ensure the coast was clear, and stepped closer towards Mishima. He flinched. “We can combine our efforts.”

“Y-You… wanna work together?”

“Something like that. My initial proposition was that if you agree to assist me in taking out my targets, I would stop the Phantom Thieves from changing your heart. I could come up with some fabrication, and I know they’d be foolish enough to believe me instantly. What do you say?”

“I… N-No.”

Akechi tried hiding his irritation behind a false smile. “No?”

“I mean. I can’t. Even if I wanted to. I can’t use my persona anymore. I can’t even summon it. There’s nothing I can do. Sorry.”

“Who said I was asking you to use your persona?” His smile turned sinister.

“Uh? How else would I be able to help you?”

“Mishima-san. You’ve been using model guns for your previous targets. All you need to do is use a real weapon. Everything else is the same.”

He hurriedly stepped back, away from Akechi, to put more distance between the two. The fear in his voice was noticeable. “It is definitely  _ not _ the same!”

“It’s not? And how so? Haven’t all of your victims lost their lives in the same manner they would have had you killed them in cold blood in our world?”

“I-I’m not a fucking murderer. Or a skilled assassin. There would be evidence, and I’d get arrested!”

Akechi remained calm and spoke in a perfectly calculated manner. “I am a detective, you know. I have a great deal of influence with both the police force and the SIU. I’d ensure you’d be protected.”

“No.” Mishima stood his ground. “Fuck this and fuck you. I’m not doing this. I’m leaving.”

He turned away from Akechi and started to head back to the train station when Akechi grabbed his arm to stop him. “Leave now and you’ll regret it.”

Mishima paused for a moment before finally yanking his arm back out of Akechi’s grasp and turning to leave the alley.

Akechi was left feeling embarrassed and angry over Mishima’s rejection of his offer. Knowing full well that that would be a possible outcome, he made one more trip to Shujin to set his Plan B in motion.

It was much simpler for Akechi to get to the roof of the school than he thought it would be. Makoto had let everyone in earlier, but given the fact that it was Sunday, he was able to pick the locks undetected. 

The metanav kept a search history of every location he had been to. He chose the most recent point of entry, and was soon back at the entrance of Mishima’s palace.

It was quieter there now. None of the cognitive spirits came forward while Crow stealthily traversed through the temple. He was able to avoid all of the shadows by remaining hidden as he made his way to the other end of the temple. Behind the temple, there was a monastery that resided on top of a nearby mountain, which stood taller than the one Crow was currently standing on.

He skillfully leapt over the different mounds and hills, before finally arriving at the gate in front of the entrance to the monastery. Crow rattled on the door for a few moments until it finally swung open. He walked along the footpath and pulled back the curtain in the doorway, revealing Mishima’s shadow before him.

Mishima’s shadow stood at the other end of the room, looking out at what lay beyond the mountaintop, faced away from Crow. It looked calm, yet sad. Drastically different from the rest of the shadows and palace rulers Crow had come across before now. It was almost pathetic to see such a sorry display. Juxtaposed with the rest of his palace that consisted of powerful shadows and cognitions, as well as magnificent and enormous architecture, Mishima seemed small and woeful. 

“Why are you here?” Its voice echoed throughout the space. It spoke softly with hurt easily detectable in its voice.

Crow said nothing and instead transfigured out of his more princely attire into his Black Mask outfit. The shadow turned around and instantly knew what the nature of Crow’s intentions were. It made no attempts to fight back, or even flee. It just stood stock-still, observing him.

“Stop looking at me like that!” Crow hissed, already irritable and desperate to get the job done.

It stayed reticent and slowly bowed its head, giving Crow its blessing to carry out his mission.

Crow wasted no time and instantly summoned Loki, calling on it to turn Mishima’s shadow psychotic.

The shadow fell to the ground, holding onto its head as it writhed in agony. “Aghhh!”

“I told you that you’d regret it. This is what happens when you cross me.” 

Crow stepped back and watched the shadow try to fight off the inevitable. He then left the metaverse before the psychosis had the opportunity to settle in and warp Mishima’s palace into something even more dangerous.

**x x x x x**

A few days later, the Phantom Thieves (including Goro Akechi) were in Leblanc for another meeting. They had been trying to make progress through Mishima’s palace every day after school, but it was getting more and more difficult for them to even get inside the temple. The spirits that were haunting the graveyard were stronger and dealt more damage. The terrain was rockier, making it harder to get from one place to the other. In addition, the overall atmosphere went from silent and slightly eerie, to loud and constant discordant sounds in severe weather. The winds alone were strong enough to keep any one of the Phantom Thieves from being firmly planted on solid ground.

Today, they wanted to come up with a plan they hadn’t tried yet that would actually get them to Mishima’s treasure. During the past week, they tried several different techniques that all proved to be failures. In doing this, they were running out of support items, as well as money to get more.

“Have we run out of options?” Yusuke spoke first. 

Ann tried to remain optimistic. “There has to be something we haven’t tried yet. We’ve never had this much trouble with a palace before.”

“This one is different, though.” Makoto noted. “I feel like each time we’ve gone in, the palace has gotten harder to traverse. The enemies seem to be getting stronger with each passing day. Morgana? Do you know why that could be?”

“No clue. Maybe Mishima’s reality has been affected.”

“Affected how?”

“I’m not exactly sure.”

Futaba turned to Ren. “How has he been at school? Is he acting any different?”

“He…” Ren paused. “He hasn’t been at school all week.”

“Yeah.” Ryuji confirmed Ren’s statement. “I haven’t seen the guy at all. I don’t know if anyone’s heard from him.”

“You don’t think he…?”

“Not possible.” Morgana interrupted Ann. “A palace ceases to exist if the palace ruler is no longer alive. That’s what happened with Kamoshida.”

“I guess you’re right.” Ann was only slightly convinced.

“I am a detective, you know.” Akechi put forth.

“Uh, yeah. We know.” 

Akechi was unphased by Ryuji’s derisive tone. “I could do some investigating. Figure out what might be causing this sudden shift in his palace.”

“That’s not the worst idea, I guess.” Futaba conceded. 

“We really wanna leave something as important as this to Akechi?” There was disdain in Ryuji’s voice.

Yusuke’s voice was more defeated when he spoke. “Do we have any other choice?”

“It might be good for us to take a break from the metaverse for a little bit anyway.” Futaba yawned. “I’m tired…”

“Me too.” Ann pouted.

Ren looked around at his teammates, who all seemed exhausted and discouraged. He felt responsible for putting them through something so physically and mentally demanding everyday. “That’s fine by me.” Ren looked at Akechi. “Do your investigation and get back to us when you find something, okay?”

“Splendid.” He smiled. “I do not intend to disappoint.”

“Yeah, ya better not.” Ryuji warned, attempting to come across as intimidating.

“Understood. Leave it to me.”

**x x x x x**

Mishima started to feel different as soon as Akechi triggered a psychotic breakdown in him, but it took several days for the effects of it to really kick in.

It started with a few intrusive thoughts the first day, but those went away almost as quickly as they came on. Out of nowhere, he’d think about how easy it would be for him to harm himself or other people. Promptly after, however, he’d dismiss the thought and tell himself he was not that kind of person.

Yet, the thoughts persisted. With each passing day, the thoughts became more frequent and lasted even longer. Despite his best efforts to keep his mind occupied and silence his unwanted impulses, he was unable to stop himself from completely giving over to the psychotic breakdown.

When it all reached its peak, he rapidly lost control over his body and it started moving on its own. He had been staying home all week, refusing to go outside in case he did actually follow through on any of his intrusive thoughts. Now, his body led him out of his house and he found himself outside the airsoft shop in Shibuya.

“Hey. Need somethin’?”

Some punk was standing outside the shop, leaning onto a crate with a padlock on it. He took a long drag of a cigarette as he looked at Mishima, who seemed shaken up.

“I want to buy a weapon.” Although he was physically saying the words, he didn’t mean them.

“You aren’t gonna have any luck with Iwai. You’re a kid. He’ll only sell you a model gun.”

“I need a real one.”

The stranger didn’t seem to be put off by Mishima’s mechanical way of speaking. “I might have what you need. First though, how much you got?”

Mishima didn’t say a word as he showed off all of his money. It was evidently more than enough to get him a real handgun, already full on ammo and ready to be used.

“Careful with this. You ever use a gun like this before?”

“Yes.”

The weapons dealer stifled a laugh. “You know this ain’t a BB gun. It’s a real weapon.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Alright then, man.” 

Mishima exchanged the money for the weapon and the stranger warned him not to mention to anyone where he got the gun from. He nodded and slid the gun into his bag. 

He started walking around Shibuya aimlessly, looking for a reason to use the dangerous weapon he bought entirely on impulse. 

Nearby, Shiho and Haru were walking together while window shopping.

“This is pretty.” Haru held up a sakura fan for Shiho to examine. “Isn’t it?”

“Mmm. Yeah.” Shiho smiled half-heartedly. “How much is it?”

She checked the price tag and read it. “About ¥5000.”

“Oh.” She moped. “That’s a little pricey.”

Haru giggled and waved dismissively. “It’s no issue. If you like it, I don’t have any problem getting it for you!”

“Thank you, Haru. I’m okay, though.” 

“If you say so.” Haru reluctantly set the fan back down and thanked the shop owner before she and Shiho left to walk to the next shop.

Out of the blue, several car horns blared in unison, alerting everyone in the vicinity to the commotion. 

“What’s going on?” Shiho held onto Haru, who was equally anxious over what could be going on nearby.

“I’m not sure.” 

Shiho gripped onto Haru’s arm tighter as they both followed the noise to see what was going on. They could see someone standing in the middle of the street, back facing towards them. Traffic was halted and the surrounding drivers were all leaning on their horns to get the pedestrian to move.

“Is that…?” Shiho walked forward to get a closer look, and realized she was looking at Mishima. “Yuuki.” She whispered under her breath.

“Yuuki?!” Haru echoed. “What is he doing there? Is he okay?”

“I have no idea.” 

Shiho let go of Haru and tried to push past the wall of people that were standing in front of them, but no one would let her through. All of the onlookers who could get a good view suddenly gasped and started running away in the opposite direction.

“Shiho…? What’s going on?”

Instead of answering, she rushed away from Haru and closer towards the action. She stopped short when she saw Mishima had pulled a gun out of his bag. “Oh, no.”

“Shiho!” Haru caught up to her and noticed her shocked expression. “What’s wrong?”

Shiho pointed weakly at Mishima, who was now aiming his gun at the driver stopped in front of him.

“Oh dear…” She brought her hand up to her mouth, terrified she’d end up witnessing something terrible.

“Get the fuck out of the car!” Mishima shouted at the driver. His voice sounded too unlike him, as if it wasn’t even possible for sound like that to come out of his body.

The driver shouted back. “Dude, you’re insane! I can run you over, man!”

Mishima took the butt of the gun and bashed the passenger side window in. “I’ll fucking kill you. Don’t test me.”

“What the hell? You’re nuts! You fucking psychopath!”

“Give me this car or I’ll shoot you! I’ll fucking shoot you!”

Mishima cocked the gun and was seconds away from pulling the trigger on an innocent civilian until— 

“YUUKI! STOP!” 

Shiho screamed, desperately hoping to reach Mishima and shock him back to reality. Her voice rang in Mishima’s head and he froze immediately. 

Whatever had been ruling his thoughts and actions suddenly disappeared at that moment, and he was in control of himself again. In trying to find his bearings, he saw the loaded gun in his hand and the frightened man sitting in front of him.

“Wh… I…” Mishima’s eyes went wide and he dropped the pistol in front of him. He backed away slowly, seeing all the people looking at him before finally seeing Shiho and Haru. “I’m… so sorry. I don’t know what I—”

“Yuuki.” Haru ran up to him and hugged him close to her. He was trembling and she tried soothing him by rubbing his back. “Come on. Come with me. We have to get you out of here.”

Haru started leading Mishima to her car when she passed Shiho.

“Haru. I don’t know if I can do this.”

She gave Shiho a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to do anything. I’ll take care of this. Please just get home safe, okay?” Shiho just stared at Mishima, who was still too disoriented to even know where he was. “Shiho. Really. It’s okay.”

“Okay…”

Haru stuck her pinkie out for Shiho to wrap her own around. They locked pinkies and Shiho gave Haru an affirmative nod before she left with Mishima.

**x x x x x**

A few hours later, Mishima woke up in a large, soft bed in a room that was unfamiliar to him. The lights were off and it was already well into nighttime, so the only light was being reflected off of the moon.

His memory of what happened earlier in the day was fuzzy at best. He saw flashes of glass breaking, him cocking a pistol, and Shiho and Haru both looking fearful. He should’ve gotten arrested if what happened was real. Now, he didn’t know where he was. 

The room wasn’t as hard and cold as an interrogation room, but it still felt impersonal. The only object in the room that seemed like it could have any sentimental value associated with it was a framed photograph. It was a photo of an elderly man with what looked to be his middle aged son and young granddaughter. They were all smiling.

The photo left Mishima feeling a little solemn. While he was reflecting, there were a few soft knocks on the door.

“Yuuki?” The voice on the other side asked.

“Um. Yes?”

“Oh, good.” Haru opened the door and entered the bedroom. “You’re awake. I was so worried.” She sat on the edge of the bed and placed a glass of ice water on the end table. 

Mishima sat up in bed. “Um. What… happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I think you might’ve had a nervous breakdown.”

“Oh.”

“You’re probably still coming down from the shock, but it might take some time to process everything that happened.” Mishima nodded and reached for the ice water Haru brought. “You can stay here as long as you need, Yuuki.”

“Um, thank you…”

There were several long, loud bangs on the front door and Haru and Mishima flinched. “Tokyo Police!”

“My apologies.” Haru got up to answer the door. “That’s probably the detectives reviewing my father’s case. They’ve been by here a lot. I’ll be back shortly.”

Haru opened the door, revealing Goro Akechi, backed up by several police officers. 

“Oh. Hello. Can I help you?”

“Okumura-san, hello.” Akechi smiled as he walked into Haru’s house. “Where is Yuuki Mishima?”

“Um…?”

The police officers followed Akechi inside, and split up to check each of the rooms.

Haru approached Akechi. “What is going on?”

His voice remained pleasant, but was still stern. “He’s under arrest.”

“ _ What? _ ”

“Grand theft auto and aggravated assault.” He spoke matter-of-factly.

“Akechi-kun!” One of the officers was holding Mishima by the arm. “This is him, right?”

Akechi nodded. “Indeed it is. Good work.”

The other officers immediately cuffed Mishima and started to bring him outside.

“Wait, stop. You can’t!” Haru tried to pull Mishima away from the police officer’s grasp, but she was too weak.

“Ma’am, do not assault an officer.”

Haru let go and blinked away the tears that quickly started to form in her eyes. “Yuuki, I’m so sorry.”

Mishima tried to smile so he could comfort her. “It’s okay, Haru. Thank you.”

He was brought outside and Akechi hesitated for a moment before following. He turned around to Haru. “Thank you for your time, Okumura-san.” Akechi bowed and shut the door behind him.


	14. New Americana

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“We know very well who we are_
> 
> _So we hold it down when summer starts_
> 
> _What kind of dough have you been spending?_
> 
> _What kind of bubblegum have you been blowing lately?”_

Shiho sat in her history class the next morning, mind racing over Mishima and whether or not he was okay. Her heart felt heavy carrying the weight of so much guilt, anger, and sadness. Haru had told her that the police came by and arrested him, but she didn’t know anything else beyond that. Presumably, he was still detained, but there was no indication that he’d be given a trial for the foreseeable future.

Mr. Inui addressed the class before beginning his lecture. “Okay class, we’re gearing up for finals so it’s time we start our review of what we went over at the beginning of the year.”

The students took out their notebooks to write down the important parts of the lecture.

“We began the year talking about the gods and goddesses in the ancient mythologies of different cultures. Today, we’ll go over the most important figures in Tagalog mythology. According to them, it all started with Bathala. Once he died, his daughters were responsible for ruling over the land. That’s when his daughter, Mayari, made a proposition with Apolaki to have joint rule. Mayari was initially regarded as the demigoddess of things such as revolution, beauty, and strength. Whereas Apolaki was seen as the lord of war. So, as you hopefully remember, when Mayari made this proposition, something happened. Anyone care to tell me what that was?” He scanned the classroom and eventually landed his attention on Shiho. “Suzui-san?”

“Um.” She thought back to the lectures she heard back in April. “There was a fight, wasn’t there? Apolaki got mad because he wanted to have sole rule.”

“Very good! That’s exactly right. Supposedly, the fight got so intense that Apolaki caused Mayari to lose sight in one of her eyes. He was so overcome with guilt and remorse that he apologized and agreed to her initial proposal of joint rule. So, Apolaki ended up ruling over the land during the day, eventually becoming the deity of the sun. Meanwhile, Mayari became the deity of the moon as she ruled during the night. It is even said that the reason it is darker at night, is because of Mayari’s lost eyesight.”

The students in class made their respective notes as the lecture went on, and Shiho did her best to stay focused on the material.

**x x x x x**

Once classes ended for the day, Shiho started heading home when she saw Ann and Ryuji having a heated discussion in the courtyard. She hid behind a wall to secretly listen in on their hushed argument. 

“Ryuji, he was just trying to help us.” Ann debated.

“Yeah, some help that was!” Ryuji scoffed. “It just made things worse. Now Mishima is in jail because freakin’ _ Akechi  _ made him go crazy.”

“We didn’t have any other options! Even before Akechi-kun did that, we didn’t stand a chance in Mishima’s palace. You saw how strong that cognition was.”

Ryuji got louder now. “He barely gave us a chance! We could’ve waited until we got stronger!”

“Ryuji!” Ann scolded. “Keep your voice down.”

He lowered the volume of his voice, but he didn’t sound any less angry. “All I’m sayin’ is that he went too far, and now it’s too late. Have you seen how messed up Ren is over all this?”

“Of course. He’s in my class. I see how upset he is about this, but I’m telling you, all we have to do is talk to Akechi and—”

“Oh, sure. Great plan there, Ann. And where is Akechi, huh? No one’s even heard from him.”

“He’s gonna turn up soon.”

“Whatever you say. Call me when he does.” Ryuji picked up his bag and left Ann alone without another word.

Ann let out a frustrated groan once Ryuji walked off and she thought she was all by herself. Just then, Shiho came out from behind the wall and approached Ann.

“Ann…”

“Shiho!” She got startled and began to speak frantically. “Shiho, what are you doing at school still? Don’t you have… uh… um… the, uh, thing?”

She ignored Ann’s questions and started to press her. “Ann, what were you and Sakamoto-kun talking about just now?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Shiho said nothing and Ann tried to lie instead of playing dumb. “Oh? That? Oh, that wasn’t serious! That was just for our, uh… English class! Yeah, we’re doing an oral report, so… we were just rehearsing!”

“You guys aren’t in the same class.”

“Oh? Sorry, did I say English class? I meant… uh… debate team…?”

“Ann.” 

Shiho’s earnest tone cut through Ann’s act and she surrendered. “Okay. Fine. I’m sorry, that’s a lie. We weren’t rehearsing or anything, but I can’t tell you what we were actually talking about. No matter how badly I want to.”

Ann sat on a bench and looked away from Shiho as she sulked.

Shiho sat on the other end of the bench and spoke sincerely. “I heard what you were saying. You were talking about Yuuki. And Akechi. Were you talking about Goro Akechi? The detective who arrested him?” Ann nodded. “And you said something about a palace? And… cognition? What does all that mean?”

“I’m so sorry, Shiho. I can’t tell you.” Ann still refused to make eye contact.

“Ann, please. I need to know. I already know that Yuuki… He told me what happened with him and Kamoshida.”

Ann looked at Shiho now. “He did? When? What did he say?”

“It was a few weeks ago. But I didn’t understand any of it. It didn’t make any sense, but he told me he was the one who killed Kamoshida. And I guess he killed other people, too. I don’t know much about it because when he was telling me, I got scared and I ran off. I hadn’t talked to him since and now he’s in jail and I don’t understand why. I…” 

Shiho struggled to hold back her tears. “I love him, Ann. I still do. I really care about him, but there’s so much I still don’t know about what he was going through. I can’t even ask him now. So, please, Ann. Please explain it to me. I need to know.”

“Okay.” Ann felt heartbroken seeing how torn up Shiho was. “I’ll tell you everything. You deserve to know.”

“Thank you.” Shiho sniffled, still trying to keep herself from full on crying.

“Okay, so basically there’s another world that exists called the metaverse. We can travel to the metaverse with this smartphone app. Not everybody can, though. Ren had the app on his phone already, and once I went, it appeared on my phone too. It’s like… basically it’s like a world that lets you go inside a person’s heart. If their desires are distorted enough, they have this thing in them called a palace. Kamoshida had one and so me, Ryuji, Ren, and Ren’s cat all went inside the palace.”

“Ren’s… cat?”

“That’s, like, the least crazy thing of all this. Just take my word for it.” Shiho nodded and let Ann continue. “So we went inside Kamoshida’s heart and then Morgana, Ren’s cat, told us that if we steal Kamoshida’s treasure, then he would have a change of heart. He wouldn’t be a bad guy anymore and he’d confess all of his sins.”

“That’s… that’s what the Phantom Thieves do, isn’t it?” Ann looked at Shiho until she made the connection. “Oh, my God. Ann. You’re a Phantom Thief? This whole time you’ve all been the Phantom Thieves of Hearts? Even Yuuki is?”

“Um.”

“He… isn’t?”

“He… was. For a little bit. But, not anymore. He left because things in Kamoshida’s palace didn’t go as planned.”

“Oh. Right… Yuuki killed him… That… That doesn’t sound like him, though. Did he really betray you guys like that?”

“No, no! It wasn’t like that at all. Things just got kind of crazy. Kamoshida was gonna hurt all of us, and he was even taunting Mishima. There was a cognitive version of you there.”

Shiho squirmed. “Like… an imaginary form? Of me? In Kamoshida’s…?” She trailed off, starting to feel sick to her stomach.

Ann nodded. “Yeah. It was disgusting to see how that creep saw you. Mishima seemed really mad, too, and then Kamoshida just kept egging him on and then I think Mishima just shot him without thinking. And if you kill someone in the metaverse, then…”

“They die in real life…?” Shiho finished Ann’s sentence and she nodded.

“Mm-hm. Mishima felt really guilty for a while, I think. We all tried to tell him we forgave him and stuff, but he didn’t believe us. I guess eventually he decided to lean into his abilities and he made a website where people would make a request to him to kill someone. And he would.”

“I see…”

Ann continued her explanation. “The rest of us decided to use the metaverse to change other people’s hearts. Since then a few other people have joined us, but we’ve been working as the Phantom Thieves for awhile. We’ve still all been really concerned about Mishima, though. We wanted to stop him, but we didn’t know how. People who have access to the metaverse can’t have a palace. And if they don’t have a palace, we can’t make them have a change of heart. Or, we thought so, anyway.”

“So, Yuuki  _ did _ have a palace?”

“Yeah…” Ann frowned. “We couldn’t make any progress in it, though. I guess his desires were really distorted, because we weren’t strong enough. We ended up getting help from Goro Akechi, actually. Apparently he has this other ability where he can make people turn psychotic. He did that to Mishima in his palace, and that’s why Mishima lost it and tried to steal some stranger’s car.”

Shiho really felt sick now. “Oh. Oh, my God.”

“Shiho. Are you okay?” Ann held her hand. “I know this is a lot to take in.”

“I… I want to join you.” Shiho stated, completely serious.

“Huh?”

“I want to be a Phantom Thief. I want to help you.”

Ann pushed herself away from Shiho slightly. “Shiho, I—”

“I want to change this Akechi guy’s heart.” 

“Well, first of all, you can’t. He doesn’t have a palace. Apparently there’s some other guy who’s been controlling Akechi and making him do things, anyway.”

There was an uncontainable spirit in Shiho now. “Then we’ll change  _ his  _ heart! Come on, Ann. _ Please. _ ”

“Th-That’s not really up to me…”

“Why not?” Shiho was persistent.

“Well, Ren is our leader., technically. So, he’s the one who makes calls like that.”

“Ren Amamiya, right? Okay, where is he right now? I’ll just talk to him.”

Shiho hopped up off the bench to find Ren, but Ann quickly grabbed her arm to hold her back. “Shiho, wait! I think Ren is still waiting in the classroom. But, please listen to me first. It doesn’t work like you think it does. You need a persona if you want to go to the metaverse.”

“Okay, then, I’ll get a persona!” She tugged her arm to free her from Ann’s grasp so she could head to the classroom building.

“Shiho, wait!” Ann rushed to follow after Shiho.

Before long, they both ran into classroom 2-D. There weren’t many other students in there, since most of them had gone home for the day. Ren, however, was still sitting at his desk.”

“Amamiya-kun!” Shiho eagerly shouted as she ran up to him.

“ _ Shiho! _ ” Ann called after her friend before finally catching up to her. “Shiho, wait, not here.”

“Uh… Suzui-san? Do you need something?”

“Yes.” She sat at the desk next to Ren. “I need to talk to you about something important.”

Ren looked at Ann. “What’s this about?”

Ann sighed. “I’m sorry, Ren. I told her everything.”

“What do you mean by everything?”

She gave him a look that showed him what she meant. “Everything.”

Ren paused for a moment before speaking. “We have to go to Leblanc, then. We can’t talk about this here.” 

He got up and grabbed his belongings, then turned to Ann again. “Is this a “call everyone to the hideout” kind of thing?” Ann nodded. “Alright then.” 

Ren heaved a sigh and they all left Shujin to go to Leblanc and meet up with the others. On the way there, Ann filled Ren in on everything she told Shiho.

**x x x x x**

Futaba, Makoto, Yusuke, and Ryuji all came to Leblanc after Ren sent them a text. He explained that Shiho knew who they were, and he’d explain further once they all got to the hideout.

They were all in the attic, sitting in their usual spots, while Shiho looked around and examined Ren’s drab bedroom.

“I suppose I’ll start.” Makoto spoke up. “Suzui-san… how did you find out about us?”

“Oh.” Shiho smiled her signature warm smile. “I overheard Ann and Ryuji arguing about something, so I asked Ann to explain. But Yuuki actually tried to tell me everything a few weeks ago. He mentioned stuff about palaces, but I didn’t understand. I still kind of don’t, but I know enough to know that I want to join you guys.”

“Join us?” Ryuji looked at her, skeptical. “You wanna be a Phantom Thief?”

She nodded. “I do. I think you guys are doing something important, and now that I know about you guys, I can’t just walk from this and do nothing. If I don’t try to take some action, I know I’ll regret it.”

“What action do you want to take, specifically?” Yusuke pushed Shiho to elaborate.

“Ann told me why Yuuki got arrested. Someone forced him to act differently and I want that person to face the consequences.”

Futaba frowned. “We don’t know who that person is, though. Right before Akechi went into hiding, he told Ren that someone was giving him orders, but we don’t know who that was.”

“I do know, actually.” Ren admitted. “Akechi told me his name is Masayoshi Shido. I checked the metanav, too, to see if he has a palace.”

“And?”

“He does.”

“Masayoshi Shido? Isn’t that the guy running for prime minister?” Makoto asked. “The public seems to love him.”

“I’m assuming his nature is much darker than the public is aware of.” Yusuke noted. “Many politicians these days are.”

“So we’re gonna change this Shido guy’s heart just because he’s technically responsible for getting Mishima arrested? You do know that Mishima ain’t exactly innocent, either, right?”

“I know.” Shiho’s smile faded. “I’m sure you all have different opinions on Yuuki, and I understand. I still don’t fully know how I feel about everything he’s done, but that doesn’t change the fact that I care about him. I do believe that he’s ultimately a victim. He was backed into a corner, and felt like he had no other choice. I know some of you were his teammates in the metaverse, but you didn’t get to see Yuuki the way I saw him. Before Kamoshida died, it was like he had completely given up. The things Kamoshida did to him. The things he did to me…” Shiho had trouble accessing her memories of all the abuse and started to trail off.

“I get what you mean.” Ryuji acknowledged Shiho and stopped her from needing to continue. “Mishima has done some stuff, but that doesn’t make him all bad. It’s freaking adults like Shido and Kamoshida who deserve a change of heart, because they take advantage of weak kids like Mishima!”

The rest of the Thieves nodded in agreement while, from Shiho’s perspective, Morgana meowed affirmatively. 

“Whaddya say, leader? We doin’ this?” Ryuji patted Ren’s shoulder to get him psyched up.

Ren nodded. “We’re doing this.” He looked at Shiho and stuck his hand out for her to shake it. “Welcome to the team.”

Shiho disregarded the outstretched hand and hugged Ren tightly instead. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” She let go and then looked at everyone else. “Okay, let’s get started then. How do I get one of those persona things? You all have one right?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Ann tried to calm Shiho and keep her from getting too enthusiastic. “We need the keywords for Shido’s palace first.”

“On it.” Futaba was already fervently typing away on her laptop, supposedly researching all she could find on Masayoshi Shido.

“Wait, what are keywords?” Shiho asked.

As Futaba plugged away on condensing all of the information on Shido that was available online into a coding program, the rest of the group tried to explain the logistics of the metaverse and personas to Shiho.

“So… how do I get an awakening?” Shiho asked, starting to sound a little discouraged.

“We’re not really sure how exactly it happens.” Ann clarified. “It happens a little differently for everyone.”

Morgana meowed something and Ren translated it for Shiho. “Morgana says if the ability to wield a persona lies within you, it’ll happen eventually.”

She nodded, still unconvinced that she’d be able to have her own persona and fight alongside the rest of the thieves.

“Don’t worry.” Ann reassured her. “If the rest of us were able to have an awakening, I’m sure you will, too.”

“Heh heh, found it!” Futaba shouted, garnering everyone’s attention. “Looks like we’re going to the Diet building.”

**x x x x x**

The Phantom Thieves arrived in front of the Diet building, ready to begin the infiltration. Ren entered the keywords that Futaba collected and in no time, they found themselves on an enormous cruise ship in the middle of the ocean.

“Whoa! Is this for real?” Skull marveled at the sight and scale of Shido’s palace. “It’s huge!”

Panther was astounded as well. “Yeah, this is insane! This guy must be really twisted.”

“How fitting that his palace is an extravagant cruise ship sailing through a sinking cityscape…” Fox hummed to himself as he took in his surroundings.

“How are you feeling?” Panther nudged Shiho. “I know this is probably a lot.”

“I’m okay.” Shiho tried to keep herself calm and steady. “I’ve never been on a ship before.”

Mona skipped over to Shiho and Panther. “If you get seasick at any point, just let us know and we’ll take a break!”

“Ah!” Shiho shrieked upon seeing Mona talking and walking on two legs. “Who is that?”

“Oh, that’s Mona!” Panther explained. “Joker’s cat looks like this when we’re in the metaverse for some reason.”

“Joker? Mona?” The confusion Shiho felt was increasing by the second.

“Oops, sorry about that. Those are our codenames. It wouldn’t be very Phantom Thief-y if we used our real names. So, I’m Panther.” She gestured to Skull and they went down the line to tell Shiho their codenames.

“I’m Skull.”

“Fox.”

“Queen.”

“Oracle!”

“And you already know I’m Mona, and that guy is Joker.” Mona pointed at Joker who gave an affirmative nod.

Shiho nodded slowly. “I’ll keep those in mind. Thanks.” She repeated the codenames to herself to try and commit them to memory. “Oh, wait! What are you guys gonna call me? What’s my codename?”

“Hmm.” Panther thought to herself. “What about… Blossom?”

“How ‘bout Spiker?” Skull suggested. “Y’know, ‘cuz volleyball?”

Shiho shook her head firmly. “I don’t like either of those.” She thought more. “Did Yuuki have one?”

“Yeah.” Joker answered. “He did.”

“What was it?”

“Luna.”

“Hm.” Shiho smiled. “It’s pretty. Why that?”

Skull answered this time. “His outfit had all this cool moon stuff on it. He seemed to like it.”

“I see. Then…” Shiho looked down at her clothes in comparison to everyone else’s. They all had loud and flashy outfits, mostly of leather, she noted. She was still in her Shujin uniform. “I don’t have an outfit or anything like the rest of you, but… I’d like it if you called me Soleil.”

Ann smiled. “I like that! It suits you!”

“Welcome to the team, Soleil!” Mona declared. “Now let’s get to work!”

“Everyone ready?” Joker confirmed with everyone. “Soleil?” She nodded. “Great. Let’s go.”

The full team headed into Shido’s palace to steal his treasure. As they explored more and more, Soleil started to become discouraged. When they came across any shadows or enemies, Soleil had to wait, away from the action, until the battle was over. She still hadn’t awoken to her persona and the rest of the group wanted to make sure she’d be safe. Regardless, she wanted to fight, but they were getting further and further along in their infiltration with no sign that she’d be awakening any time soon.

Once they reached the midway point, Joker led everyone to a safe room to rest and heal. 

“How’s our progress?” Joker asked.

“Looks like we only need two more letters of introduction and we should be able to get to the treasure!” Mona informed the group.

“Everyone feeling okay to keep going? I have some stuff here actually if you guys need to bring your energy up.” Joker handed out a few moist katsu buns to everyone. Without really thinking, he offered one to Soleil.

She looked up at Joker, completely stoic. “I don’t need one.”

“Y-Yeah. Sorry.” He handed it over to Queen instead.

“Soleil? Are you okay?” Queen asked, concerned.

“I’m fine. This just wasn’t really what I was expecting.” She pouted. “You guys are all so cool and you’re so good at fighting and I feel like I’m just a dead weight. I don’t think I belong here…”

Panther held onto Soleil’s hand and squeezed it. “Hey, look at me.” She did. “Don’t say those things about my best friend, okay? You do belong here. I know your awakening is gonna happen. Just stick with us. We’re all rooting for you, and we all think you’re a great addition to our team. Right, guys?” Panther looked over her shoulder to cue everyone else to give verbal support, which they did. “See?”

Soleil smiled. “Thank you, Panther.”

The two hugged, and everyone else gave Soleil some encouragement before they headed back out into the rest of the ship. 

Although she left the safe room feeling confident that she’d have an awakening soon, that confidence was diminished little by little until finally they gained access to the treasure room.

“So… that’s the treasure, huh?” Soleil commented upon seeing the foggy cloud in the center of the room.

“It will be once we send the calling card.” Mona explained. “You remember how that part works, right?”

Soleil nodded. “Yep.” She hummed sadly to herself. 

“You alright?” Skull asked.

“Yeah, I’m good!” Soleil masked her disappointment with an enthusiastic smile. “This is exciting! We’re gonna do a change of heart!”

Panther knew Soleil well enough to know when she was hiding her true feelings, but she decided not to call her out in front of everyone.

Since they were able to secure an infiltration route, they went back to the real world to come up with a plan on how to send the calling card. Futaba assured everyone that she had the perfect idea and whenever Ren decided the calling card was a go, then she would implement it.

The more they explored Shido’s palace, the more they learned about his corrupt and cruel nature. They were convinced that Shido would be the perfect target to send a message to the public, as well as provide many of them closure on their respective scars. They learned that Shido had a hand in a lot of the strife each of them had experienced, and they were aware that what they were told in his palace barely even scratched the surface of all he had done.

Shiho thought over all of it as she lied in bed that night. It felt good to be a part of something that would end up meaning something and making a difference, but she barely felt like she was a part of it. Of course it would be reassuring to know that the man responsible for putting Mishima in jail would get what was coming to him, but it made her sad to know that she wouldn’t have really been the one to make that happen.

She groaned over her own self-pity and grabbed her phone to text Ann.

**Shiho:** Heyy :(

**Ann:** Shiho! Hey what’s up?

**Ann:** I wanted to text you earlier but you seemed like you wanted some space.

**Shiho:** Thanks

**Shiho:** I’m okay. Just bummed.

**Ann:** I know :/

**Shiho:** I don’t think I’ll be joining you guys when you steal the treasure.

**Ann:** Whaaat???? Nooooo!

**Ann:** You have to! We need you

**Shiho:** You guys do perfectly well without me

**Ann:** Shiho, like it or not, you’re one of us now. You may not have a persona yet but you’re a key part of our team. You’re good at helping us solve puzzles and come up with strategies. 

**Ann:** Even though you haven’t been in battle yet, I overheard you telling Ren some moves you thought would be better when fighting certain enemies and he listened to you and it worked!

**Ann:** I have no doubt that once you get your awakening, you’ll be unstoppable

**Ann:** Please please come with us Shiho

**Shiho:** Okaaaayy!! I’ll come! Stop begging!

**Ann:** :)

**Shiho:** It means a lot that you said all that

**Shiho:** Plus, I do not want to miss seeing that jackass pay

**Ann:** Shiho! language! :P

**Shiho:** lol

Shiho smiled at her phone and went to sleep in higher spirits than she was before.

**x x x x x**

A few days later, Ren made the decision that it was time to send the calling card. The Phantom Thieves collectively decided that it had to be a spectacle in order to get Shido’s attention. Futaba rigged a program that would allow them to release a live broadcast. During which, they told the whole country that the Phantom Thieves were going to change Masayoshi Shido’s heart.

Once they ended their broadcast and instantly caused a stir among the general public, they promptly entered Shido’s palace so they could steal the treasure while it was still materialized.

They ran into the room where the treasure resided, and were all greeted by the palace ruler himself.

“Shido…” Queen muttered with scorn in her voice.

Shido’s shadow approached the group with a holier-than-thou attitude that made their stomachs turn. It was a detestable sight. 

The shadow monologued over its previous successes, and successes yet to come. It bragged about its low regard for human life, and its immense power that it abused excessively.

Skull groaned, thin on patience and thick on rage. “Enough already! Shut the eff up so we can fight you and be done with it.”

“Very well.” The shadow laughed and transformed into its first battle form.

Everyone instantly entered their battle stances, except for Soleil.

“Soleil—” Joker addressed her with a sense of urgency.

“Yes?” Soleil eagerly awaited her order from the leader.

“I want you to stay back. Make sure you’re hidden during the battle.”

“O-Oh… Yeah. Okay.” She hurried to the far end of the room, dejected. 

Joker gave everyone remaining their orders, and the starting lineup got into their places to begin the long and strenuous fight. 

Soleil was sitting behind the very back row of seats, knees hugged into her chest, and facing towards the wall, away from the action of the battle. She was humming softly to herself, quietly praying that everyone would make it out okay.

The battle was dragging on for much longer than she expected it would need to. She overheard them constantly switching up tactics and tossing different medicines and other items to each other to gain more energy and stamina.

As the fight wore on, everyone became less motivated and able to fight. Soleil looked over her shoulder to take a peek at the action, and noticed they all resorted to blocking every oncoming attack, rather than fight against the shadow at all. 

“What’s going on?” Soleil whispered to herself. 

“You’re all pathetic… Worthless and weak. Your existence is meaningless and you have no place in this world!” Shido’s voice echoed throughout the room, and Soleil felt sick.

The more it spoke, the sicker she felt. The words pierced through her like blades, each one uncovering a dark memory that she had worked so hard to bury.

Shido’s words swirled around in her head, getting louder and stronger. Shido’s voice soon morphed into Kamoshida’s and the sickness she felt was suddenly even more intense.

_ Pathetic. Worthless. Weak. Meaningless. Tease. Cute. Sexy. Hot. Slutty. _

She winced and fell down to the floor, held up only by her arms. She let out several shouts to try and get rid of the thoughts, but they remained.

“Agh, stop! Shut up!  _ Shut up _ !” Soleil attempted to lift herself up to standing. Her arms and legs shook violently, not strong enough to support the weight of her body. She collapsed onto the floor fully and sobbed.

Panther looked back towards Soleil, and became increasingly worried. She was too low on energy, however, to even be able to walk back to her and check on her. Through her labored breathing she expressed concern for her. “What’s happening to Soleil? Is she okay?”

Everyone else, Shido included, turned their attention towards Soleil, who was still on the floor, crying uncontrollably.

“I can’t do this anymore… Ann… Haru… Yuuki… I’m so sorry.”

As she cried, another voice entered her mind. A different voice. An unfamiliar one. It was deep, yet comforting. Soft, yet strong.

_ “You’re giving up now? _

_ All the work you’ve done… _

_ Everything you’ve been through… _

_ You’re choosing to let that go to waste? _

_ To be tossed aside? _

_ In the very same way you were tossed aside before?” _

Soleil shook her head with the few ounces of strength she had left in her.

_ “Good. Let us sign the contract. _

_ I am thou. Thou art I. _

_ Gather all of your might. _

_ And expose the power and force within you. _

_ Bring light from your scars. _

_ And radiate the brilliant light that beams from inside you!” _

The energy that manifested in Soleil came bursting out instantaneously, and she climbed her way back up to standing with determination.

A gold mask with wavy, ornate rays radiating out from it, suddenly appeared across Soleil’s eyes. She gripped it tightly before ripping it off with fervor. A mighty god appeared behind her, and she shouted the name of her newfound persona. “Apolaki!”

Blood began to drip from her face as Apolaki spun around her, covering her in a majestic aura. Her outfit transformed from her typical everyday wear, to a more classy attire. She now wore a kimono-style jacket that was deep golden in color, emblazoned with intricate sun designs above the hem. She was wearing dark leggings, and golden thigh high boots. A black straw hat rested on her head, complete with a sunflower accessory above the brim.

Like Mayari, Apolaki had a similar reddish-brown skin tone, as well as having long, dark hair. He also had dark, thick eyebrows that complemented his face. Both of his eyes shone a bright, golden hue, which matched the jewelry that decorated his body.

“Apolaki.” She commanded again as she slowly lifted a finger directly at Shido’s shadow. “Destroy him.”

Apolaki reared backwards in preparation of his first attack. He gathered the energy of the spell and aimed it straight towards the shadow in front of him, causing it to collapse instantly.


	15. Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I'm searching for something that I can't reach_
> 
> _My ghost, where'd you go?_
> 
> _I can't find you in the body sleeping next to me_
> 
> _My ghost, where'd you go?_
> 
> _What happened to the soul that you used to be?”_

By virtue of Shiho’s awakening, the Phantom Thieves were able to have their energy and stamina fully restored, allowing them to defeat Shido and steal his treasure.

It took several days for Shido to issue his public apology, wherein he also withdrew himself from the running for prime minister. The man who was highest in the polls after Shido ended up winning the election, and took office before the end of the year.

“Hey, have you guys seen this?” Ann showed the article she was reading on her phone to the rest of the group while they were all hanging out at Leblanc.

Makoto read the text aloud. “New prime minister declares that all currently incarcerated citizens will be released on probation until given a fair trial.”

“Wait. What?” Shiho took the phone from Ann to read through the article herself.

Ann summarized what she had already read. “Yeah, apparently he was made aware that most of the people who are in jail right now weren’t even given a trial. The criminal justice system was really corrupted, I guess. They’re doing a major overhaul.”

“I hope sis is gonna be okay…” 

Ann consoled Makoto while Shiho finished reading the article. She handed the phone back to Ann and immediately thought about Mishima.

**x x x x x**

At the dawn of the new year, Mishima was still in juvenile hall, unaware of when he’d officially be released. He was given no information on how long his sentence would be and was never informed, even when he asked. 

He was ready to fully resign himself to his punishment, when he was called to a private visiting room by one of the guards.

“Mishima Yuuki?”

“Yes, sir?”

The guard gestured for him to follow. “This way.”

Mishima obeyed and followed the guard down a long hallway to a small, confined room with only a chair and a table. The chair was facing a plastic window with a speaker in the center.

“Have a seat. Your visitor is on their way.”

The guard departed and Mishima sat in the chair, anxious over who might be coming to visit him. He hadn’t had any visitors so far during his time in juvenile hall, and had no idea who would come to see him now. As far as he knew, he wasn’t even allowed to have visitors.

“Mishima-kun?” A young woman entered the connecting room and sat across from Mishima.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Okay, good, let’s make this quick. I have about a hundred more of these to do today.” She took out a folder, presumably containing Mishima’s file. “My name is Sae Niijima, I work at the public prosecutor’s office.”

“Oh. Hello. Nice to meet you.” He bowed his head.

Sae scanned over Mishima’s file. “So, it looks like you were arrested back in November? On the counts of aggravated assault and grand theft auto. But it says here you were never given a trial for these accusations, is that correct?”

He nodded. “That’s correct.”

“Well, our new prime minister has implemented an order to release every incarcerated citizen on probation if they were never given a fair trial.”

“O-Oh?” 

Sae continued her recitation before Mishima fully processed what she was saying. “This does not mean that you have been declared innocent, but you will be released from juvenile hall until a trial is conducted. There is a large backlog of offenders and delinquents that need to be tried, so it could take several months before you’re seen. Do you understand?”

“Um. Y-Yes. I think so.”

“You will be officially released later today. Do you have a parent or friend you can call to come pick you up?”

Mishima thought over who would possibly be willing to pick him up from juvenile hall. Only one person came to mind. He didn’t know where he stood with her, since they hadn’t spoken in weeks, but he decided to at least try. “Yes. I think so.”

“You think so?” Sae parroted.

“I-I do. Yes.”

“Great. Okay, then, just let them know who to contact on your behalf. Good luck out there.” Sae swiftly gathered her papers and exited.

**x x x x x**

Later that afternoon, Mishima was escorted to the gates by a security guard to be released. On the other side of the gates, he saw Haru, smiling wide and waving joyfully.

“Yuuki!” She bounced in place, overflowing with anticipation to see Mishima again and hug him.

Mishima couldn’t help but smile. Seeing Haru’s familiar face and positive energy instantly lightened his spirit. “Hey!”

The gate opened and once Mishima crossed the threshold, Haru wrapped her arms around him and held him in a tight embrace.

“Yuuki, I’m so glad to see you! You have no idea how reassuring it was to get that phone call today! I’ve been worried sick. I kept trying to find out where you were and if I’d be able to see you, but the police wouldn’t give me any information.”

“Really?” Mishima disengaged himself from the hug to hand his small bag of belongings over to the driver. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah! It was so scary.” Haru held onto Mishima’s wrist and led him to the car. “Come on, let’s go back to the house. I’ll have the chef cook you up a real meal, and run a bath for you as well.”

He was overwhelmed with how much consideration he was being given. Being looked after became a foreign feeling to him. “Thank you, Haru. You don’t have to do all that. I’m just very grateful you’re letting me stay with you. Getting to sleep in an actual bed again will be nice.”

“It won’t be a bother. I’m happy to do it.” 

The two got in the backseat and the driver started taking them to Haru’s home. 

“It’s so nice to see you again, Yuuki. We were all really concerned. We didn’t even know if you were still alive!”

“W-We?”

“Yes! Me and Shiho. And Takamaki-san and the others.”

Mishima was stunned to hear that Ann of all people held him in any matter of concern. “They were all worried about me?”

“Mm-hm!” 

“Shiho’s been worried?”

“I think she’s been the most distressed out of anyone. She’s the first one I called after I knew where you were.”

He took note of the fact that Shiho did not come with Haru to pick him up and his heart sank a bit. “What did she say?”

“She seemed mostly relieved to know that you were okay. But, um…”

“But?”

She sighed. “She also said she wasn’t ready to see you yet. She still wants to! Just… not yet. I told her that you’d be staying with me, so she can come see you whenever she’s ready.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

Not ready to see him was better than refusing to see him ever again, so he tried to take comfort in the fact that there was at least a possibility.

**x x x x x**

Haru transitioned to homeschooling to complete her final year. Going to school became too overwhelming, but she didn’t want to miss out on graduation when she was already so close to finishing high school. 

Meanwhile, Mishima missed weeks of the curriculum and figured it would be best to catch up on his own before returning to school. 

Haru was working on a difficult math problem while Mishima was reading an assigned text from early December. Haru grumbled to herself as she erased what she had just written.

“Having trouble?” Mishima looked up from his reading and saw how frustrated Haru was.

“I’m not good at calculus. I can’t figure out this problem.”

“Let me see.” Mishima scooted next to Haru and looked over the question. “Oh, I see. You need to make sure you simplify the equation as much as possible before you solve for x. So, see here?” Mishima pointed at an unsimplified fraction. “This can be reduced further.”

Haru looked closer. “Oh! You’re right!” She rewrote the equation and quickly solved for x.

“There you go! Easy, right?”

Mishima smiled and Haru thanked him just before they both heard a gentle knock at the door.

“Haru?” A soft voice asked from the other side of the door. A pause. “Yuuki? Are you there?”

“Is that—?”

Before Mishima could speculate further, Haru rushed to the door and opened it to reveal Shiho holding a small bouquet of white jasmines.

“Hi.” Shiho outstretched her hand and smiled. “These are for, um…” She looked behind Haru to see Mishima.

Haru followed Shiho’s gaze and saw she was looking at Mishima. “Oh!” She took the flowers. “I’ll put these in some water in the vase in Yuuki’s room.”

Haru took the bouquet to Mishima’s bedroom, and left the newly reunited pair alone to talk. 

Mishima was hesitant to speak first, but he felt as though the obligation rested on him. “Um, Shiho, I—”

“Wait. Yuuki. Me first.” Shiho sat down next to Mishima and prepared to say what had been running through her head for weeks. “A lot has happened since you… got arrested. A lot has happened between us, but a lot has also happened to me and to… everyone, really.” 

“What do you mean everyone? You mean Ann and them?”

“I mean… like… all of Japan?” Shiho noticed that Mishima was utterly confused, so she elaborated. “I guess I should start at the beginning. Basically, after you got arrested, I talked to Ann because I overheard her and Ryuji talking about palaces and the metaverse. All the stuff you were telling me about on the roof back then. I learned that Goro Akechi was being controlled by someone who ordered him to trigger a psychotic breakdown within you. That’s why you lost it that day and tried to steal that stranger’s car. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Shiho…”

“Yuuki, you were taken advantage of by Masayoshi Shido. I wanted you to get the justice you deserved. So I decided to join the Phantom Thieves and change his heart.”

Mishima didn’t speak, and Shiho couldn’t read his expression either. He recounted everything she told him in his head again. “Okay. So, what happened to all of Japan?”

“It’s kind of confusing to me still. Morgana would be able to explain it better, but from what I understand, changing Shido’s heart ended up distorting the desires of the public. We’re supposed to go into Mementos and change the heart of everyone.”

“Wow.” Even though he was already sitting down, he started getting dizzy. “H-How are you going to do that?”

“With you.”

“Huh?”

“You know Mementos better than any of us! Ren and the others told me how strong you were when you awakened to your power. We need you.”

Mishima sighed and looked down at his hands crossed in his lap. “Shiho, I… I can’t use my persona. I lost the ability to when my palace formed.”

“That’s what we thought, too, but look.” Shiho pulled out the metanav and entered Mishima’s name.

_ No candidate found. _

“What?” Mishima looked over at Shiho’s phone to confirm what he heard was right. “Did you guys… change my heart?”

She shook her head. “Nope. It just disappeared on its own. Morgana says it’s probably because you were able to change your own heart. Your desires are no longer distorted. So your persona is probably back, too!”

“I see… I… I don’t know about this, Shiho…”

“I understand. This is a lot to process. Take your time, but also… you need to make a decision kind of quickly because we’re heading into Mementos tomorrow.”

He nodded, aware of the gravity of the situation. “Okay. I’ll call you when I’ve made my decision.”

“Thank you.” Shiho got up off the couch and started to head out. Just as she got to the door, she turned to look directly at Mishima. “I’m really, really glad you’re back.”

Shiho shut the door behind her and left Mishima alone to mull over her request.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left now ;__; I hope you all have enjoyed reading so far and are looking forward to this fic wrapping up on Friday! As always, I'm incredibly grateful for all of the hits, kudos, and comments. It means the world!


	16. Colors, Pt. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“You're dripping like a saturated sunrise…”_

“That’s amazing!” Haru’s tone was hushed, but her excitement was still easily detectable. “And then what happened?”

Haru was sitting in a booth at her favorite café, across from Mishima and Shiho, who were recounting the details of their battle with Yaldabaoth. They decided to fill her in on everything that happened with them and everyone else in the metaverse. 

It wasn’t an easy decision to tell her everything, but Haru had been working diligently on putting together evidence and contacting lawyers who would be able to defend Mishima when his trial came. They wanted to tell Haru that doing all that work wouldn’t be necessary anymore, but in order to fully explain why, Mishima felt it important to reveal absolutely everything. Shiho agreed.

They told her that the detective who was responsible for arresting Mishima was still off the grid, and that Makoto’s sister knew about everything that happened and was going to make protecting Mishima a priority. They spared her the details on the logistics of how the metaverse worked, however. Haru didn’t question it much in the first place, anyway. 

Mishima was using the pastries he ordered to act out the scenes for visual effect, while Shiho told the story. “So, then, Joker took out his small gun.” Mishima picked up a macaron to illustrate Joker’s gun. “And at the same time, his persona took out this massive gun!” He picked up a large croissant. “And Joker was like, “begone!” and shot him in the head!”

“PSHEW!” Mishima knocked the croissant against an éclair as he made gun sound effects

“Oh, wow! That’s amazing!” Haru was delighted over Mishima and Shiho’s storytelling abilities. “I almost don’t believe it.”

Mishima laughed. “I almost don’t either.”

The waiter came by and asked if they wanted to box up the extra pastries. “Oh, yes please! And here.” 

Haru handed him the check after he gave her a to-go box. “Thank you very much!” 

She turned back to the others while putting away the excess baked goods. “Yuuki, are you ready to go back to the house now?”

“Sure.” Mishima stood up to leave.

“Actually, wait.” Shiho stretched her arm in front of Mishima to stop him. “Yuuki, can you walk me home?”

Haru got the hint that Shiho wanted to discuss something privately with Mishima, so she pulled out some money to give him for a cab ride home.

“In case you need it.” She smiled as she handed Mishima the cab fare. “I’ll call you later, Shiho! Thank you for inviting us both here with you.”

“You’re welcome.” Shiho interlocked her pinkie with Haru’s. “Bye!”

“See you.” Mishima waved in acknowledgment.

“Goodbye, you two!” Haru strolled out of the cafe and to the town car, leaving Mishima and Shiho alone.

Mishima slid out of the booth and offered out his arm for Shiho to take. She grabbed onto him and lifted herself up to standing. She smiled, arms still wrapped around his as they walked out of the building together.

“So, why the need for an escort? Are you afraid to walk home alone?”

She shook her head. “No, no, it’s not that. I just wanted to talk to you about some stuff. Privately. I feel like we haven’t gotten the chance to do that yet.”

“Yeah, we got a little busy with trying to keep reality from fusing with the collective unconscious.” He joked and Shiho giggled. “You’re right, though. The last conversation we had before I got arrested kind of felt like a breakup.”

“It was.” Shiho confessed. “I mean. Sort of. That’s what I was trying to do, anyway. You told me some stuff that really scared me and it was a lot to take in.”

“I don’t blame you for wanting to break up with me. I did so many things. I’m still in disbelief that you’re willing to talk to me now.”

“You’ve gone through so much, Yuuki. And you have every right to just hate the world, but you don’t. Despite everything, you’ve still treated me kindly, and I admire that in you. You don’t want to see people hurting the same way you’ve been hurt.”

“Thank you for saying that, but you shouldn’t be with a guy like me. You deserve better. Someone who is worthy of having you.”

They walked silently together, arms still linked. Shiho tried thinking about how she wanted to say what was going through her mind before she finally spoke. “You know, everyone talks about “learning to love someone despite their flaws.” As if that’s the hard part, accepting someone and loving them in spite of their shortcomings. But I don’t think that’s the hard part.”

“What is?”

“Letting someone in and allowing them to see  _ your  _ flaws.” Shiho stopped short and looked at Mishima. “You could’ve kept hiding it from me, but you told me anyway, even though you probably knew you’d lose me for it.”

“You deserved the truth…”

“I know. You risked everything just to let me see you completely. Yuuki, I know you now. All of you. I know about the scars, and the bumps, and the bruises.” Mishima looked away and Shiho held both of his hands in hers. “But I also know about the heart, and the sincerity, and the bravery you have inside you. I know all of that, and that’s why I love you. Still. Always...”

Mishima looked at Shiho now through misty eyes. “I love you, too.”

She smiled and gently wiped a tear from his cheek. “I want to be with you, and I know we’ve both been dealing with a lot emotionally, so maybe we take things slow for a bit?”

He nodded and blinked away his remaining tears. “That’s probably best.” He paused. “Do you think Ann and everyone will be okay with that, though? I know it shouldn’t matter what they think, but they are your friends.”

“They’re our friends. You all apologized and forgave each other for everything that happened.”

“Yeah. I just still feel weird about everything.”

Shiho squeezed Mishima’s hand and tugged it as she started walking again. “It’ll probably just take some time to get past all of that stuff. But they all really do care about you and like you. I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear that we’re together.”

Shiho kissed him lightly on the cheek, and they both smiled.

**x x x x x**

“So, what did Shiho get you for Valentine’s Day?” Ren asked Mishima while they were standing in the Shibuya underground mall, looking for White Day gifts.

“Um, this scarf.” Mishima tugged on the green scarf he was currently wearing. “And some chocolates.”

“Maybe get her the same stuff then?” Ren lifted up a stuffed cat toy to show to Mishima. “Or this? This is pretty cute.”

“Oh, yeah, it is.” He took it. “Agh, I’m just so nervous. I’ve never had to get a girl something for White Day.”

“I’m sure Shiho will appreciate whatever you end up getting her.”

Mishima nodded. “What about you? I didn’t even ask who you’re getting a gift for.”

“I didn’t actually get anything on Valentine’s Day.” He said, a little sad. “Unless you count the chocolate Ryuji’s mom made for him.”

“Ryuji would definitely appreciate it if you got him chocolate.” Mishima responded, half joking. He started looking at the jewelry stand. “So, when do you officially leave to go back home?”

“Sunday.”

Mishima turned to him abruptly. “ _ This  _ Sunday?” 

Ren nodded. “I’m not gonna have a lot of time to say goodbye to everyone, so that’s why I wanted to come out with you here today. So, we could have an official goodbye.”

“I’ll still see you, though. Spring break, and summer vacation, right?”

“Mm-hm.” Ren turned around, and Mishima could hear him trying not to cry.

“Ren? Are you okay?”

He took a deep breath and tried to regain his stoic demeanor before turning around to face Mishima again. “I’m fine. I’ve been holding a lot in, I guess.”

“Like what?”

“Like…” He breathed in a few more times before actually admitting his feelings. “I don’t want to go back home.”

“Oh.” He moved without thinking and hurried to Ren’s side to hug him. 

Ren hugged him back and they stayed like that for a few soothing seconds. He let go of his hold, and Mishima did as well. “I know you know what it’s like to have parents who don’t give a damn about you. It was nice to just not have to be around them for awhile.”

“Maybe I can talk to Haru? There’s an extra room at the house. She’d be happy to help you out.”

“No. I can’t.” He sighed. “Thank you, though.”

“This is goodbye, then?”

“For now.”

“I-I’ll, um… I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too.”

Mishima averted his gaze to one of the display tables. He fidgeted with a keychain as he spoke. “I’m really glad we’re friends again. I always really liked you, Ren.”

Ren stared at Mishima and smiled, heart heavy. “I really liked you, too.”

**x x x x x**

**Ryuji:** HEY YUUKI

**Yuuki:** Hi

**Ryuji:** You and the gf wanna get some ramen with me after school?

**Ryuji:** My treat

**Yuuki:** Shiho has volleyball practice after school

**Yuuki:** But I’m free if you’re okay with that

**Ryuji:** Yeah, dude why not?

**Ryuji:** It’ll just be two bros!!

**Yuuki:** Okay cool!

**Yuuki:** I’ll see you after school, then

**Ryuji:** Cya!

After school, Mishima and Ryuji took the train together to Ogikubo. Once they were seated at the bar, the chef handed them each a bowl of ramen.

Ryuji started eating instantly, but Mishima waited for his to cool down first.

“So, how is it being back at school?” Ryuji mumbled through his food as he chewed.

“It’s weird. Kind of lonely, actually. Now that Ren really left.”

“I know what ya mean. I feel a lot emptier. We’ve been video chattin’ and stuff, but…” He took the liberty of adding some toppings to Mishima’s ramen. “It’s nice to hang out, just us, though.”

“Yeah! I think this is the first time we ever have.”

“I’m kinda glad, because I’ve been meaning to tell ya somethin’ for awhile. I just don’t really know how to word it, y’know?”

Mishima looked down at his ramen and stirred it. “That’s okay. Say whatever is on your mind.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve just been thinkin’ a lot. About everything that went down with us. I know we all apologized and everythin’ and said we were cool, but I feel like I never got that closing you know?”

He nodded and refrained from correcting Ryuji’s use of “closing” over “closure.” “I’ve felt the same way.”

“I didn’t want to bring it up, because I know ya still feel guilty about a lot of it.”

“Sort of.” He shrugged. “But, I’m seeing a counselor at school now. So that helps.”

“That’s good.” Ryuji took a drink of his water to wash down the food. “Still, I want you to know that you shouldn’t feel so guilty all the time. I don’t think you’re a bad guy. Kamoshida, and all those other people, they’re the bad ones. Kamoshida made my life a living hell, and I know he really messed with everyone on the volleyball team. You didn’t do shit like that.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“No, really, man. I mean it.” Ryuji looked at Mishima seriously. “I think anyone in your position would’ve done what you did back then. When it started.”

“You mean…?”

“Yeah. I know  _ I _ would’ve. If I thought I could just end all of that shit he put everyone through, I woulda shot him, too…”

Mishima froze for a moment, staring into the bowl as he shook his head. “I didn’t end it, though. The damage he did to me and Shiho. And to you, too. It lingered even after he died. I couldn’t undo any of that.”

“We’re kids, man.” He gently put his arm around Mishima. “It’s not your job to undo that, but you shouldn’t feel bad for trying to, either.”

He smiled. “Thanks.”

“No problem, dude. If you ever need to talk, y’know?”

“Yeah.” He chuckled softly. “I know. Same here.”

Ryuji squeezed Mishima in closer and tousled his hair. “What’s that thing you and Shiho always used to say to each other?”

He thought for a moment. “No giving up?”

“Yeah that! Well, man, just know that if ya ever feel like you’re gonna give up again, you got people who will help you put yourself back together.”

“I appreciate that, Ryuji.”

“Love ya, dude.” Ryuji held out his fist for Mishima to tap it and he did. 

Ryuji resumed eating to finish up the last few bites, and Mishima watched him, his heart feeling lighter than it ever had before. Sitting in a bustling, noisy restaurant next to someone who genuinely saw him as a friend, filled him with solace. He sat for a minute and briefly closed his eyes, savoring the fleeting moment.

**x x x x x**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaand it's done! :)
> 
> I really, really hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I loved writing and sharing it! This story has been in my head and in my heart for over a year now and it's finally all done.
> 
> Thank you all once again for the attention you've given my writing and this story in particular. It means more than you know.
> 
> Never linked these but if you wanna message me or talk to me, I can be found on [twitter](https://twitter.com/arcanalalune) and [tumblr](https://bufu.tumblr.com)!


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